Protected grizzly bear found killed with rifle bullet in its side, Idaho officials say

A protected grizzly bear was shot and killed near Coyote Meadows, Idaho Fish and Game said.

The adult male grizzly wore a collar and was killed Sept. 29 in Fremont County, Fish and Game said in a Wednesday news release.

“Grizzly bears are protected by both state and federal law with no current hunting season in Idaho,” wildlife officials said. “After receiving a mortality signal from the bear’s collar on Sept. 29, Fish and Game biologists set out to retrieve the collar on Oct. 1 and discovered the grizzly had died of a gunshot wound.”

Conservation officers recovered a rifle bullet from the bear’s side, Fish and Game said. A blood trail from the bear led officials “into a nearby clearing.”

Grizzly bears are considered an endangered species in the continental U.S. They have been expanding their territory into Idaho, Wyoming and Montana for the past decade, the Idaho Statesman reported.

There have been at least three grizzly attacks in Idaho this year, the Idaho Statesman reported. In early September, a grizzly bear attacked two archery hunters in the Apache Ridge area. Another hunter survived a similar attack days later by what he thought to be a grizzly, the Idaho Statesman reported.

In May, a Montana man in the Henrys Lake area was attacked and bitten by a female grizzly bear. He survived the attack.