Tech · MIT Technology Review
Bears are drawn to spilled or leaking grains, and an open silo quickly turns into a buffet
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Sarmento first turned to two Airedale dogs, a breed known for deterring bears on farms, but the dogs were easily sidetracked.
Key facts
- Grizzly bears have made such a comeback across eastern Montana that in 2017, the state hired its first-ever prairie-based grizzly manager: wildlife biologist Wesley Sarmento
- Based in the small city of Conrad, population 2,553, he acted sort of like a first responder, trying to defuse potentially dangerous situations
- Sarmento was studying mountain goats in Glacier National Park when he first started working with bears
- He first took one into the field in 2022, when a grizzly mom and two cubs were found rummaging around in a silo outside of town
Summary
Grizzly bears have made such a comeback across eastern Montana that in 2017, the state hired its first-ever prairie-based grizzly manager: wildlife biologist Wesley Sarmento. For some seven years, Sarmento worked to keep both the bears, which are still listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and the humans, who are sprawling into once-wild spaces, out of trouble. Sarmento was studying mountain goats in Glacier National Park when he first started working with bears. When he later started as grizzly manager, he often drove long distances to push bears away from farms.