How the invasion of huge wild beasts has left residents of idyllic Wyoming mountain towns in shock, fearing for their lives: ‘I pray a lot’

Residents of idyllic mountain villages have been left speechless by the rapid increase in the grizzly bear population.

Since being listed as endangered in 1975, when there were only 700 of them roaming the lower 48 states, grizzlies have made a comeback.

Locations including towns, farms and ranches in the Northern Rockies where they had not been seen in more than a century are reporting sightings.

Biologists estimate that the population has now reached at least 2,000 individuals, and that the bears now regularly roam outside Glacier National Park and Yellowstone.

Cecil and Bridget Gallagher, who live in Clark, Wyoming, just outside of Cody, harvest sweet corn on their farm, which they say now gives them an adrenaline rush.

The animals started appearing near their ranch about ten years ago, giving them an electric face.

Since then, bears have managed to get into cornfields, and four of them were captured by state wildlife managers last year.

As harvest approaches, the Gallaghers say they fear for themselves and their children as they walk through the fields as they try to generate enough noise to keep the bears away.

Bridget told the newspaper: “I’m praying hard. We’ll start picking corn next week. I saw our first bear tracks around the field a few days ago. Luck’s work is starting again.”

As Elliott Lee woke up one morning to the sound of frantic screaming coming from his backyard chicken coop, he rushed outside to discover a grizzly bear.

Lee, 78, told the outlet: “The fence had been broken and I looked up and there was a grizzly bear 25 or 30 feet away.”

“He had killed four chickens and was eating them.”

Dana Darlington, who runs a ranch on the Montana prairie where grizzlies haven’t been seen in at least 100 years, said she found the remains of a 120-pound calf in April.

State biologists later confirmed in Darlington that the calf had been attacked by a bear.

The 60-year-old told the outlet: “I never thought I’d see a grizzly bear kill here in my life. I’m just baffled by what’s going on here.”

Carnivore biologist Luke Ellsbury said his “holy shit” moment came last year when a grizzly bear showed up in the Bighorn Mountains.

Ellsbury told the outlet that the animal must have crossed the Bighorn Basin, a vast plateau about 100 miles wide.

He told the outlet, “We thought it would take a few more years,” adding that his game and fish department had to euthanize him after he killed livestock.

Last year, in a rare moment, Ellsbury also scared off a grizzly bear along the Shoshone River, near a popular nature trail, by firing blanks.

His office provides residents with bear spray and even lets people train on a Robobear, a remote-controlled grizzly bear that recharges.

Ranch manager Mark McCarty reported losing 50 to 75 calves each year to bears and other predators.

He told the outlet that the state compensates the ranch but not all the costs, adding that stressed cows reproduce less.

McCarty said: “I don’t want bears to go extinct, but they’ve gotten so numerous that they tend to get into trouble. It’s like a glass of water and the bears pour over it.”

In May of this year, Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, was seriously injured following an attack in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

He revealed in an Instagram post how he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” when a mother grizzly attacked him.

The adult animal was protecting its young, he said, leading to a violent attack that the combat veteran called the “most violent” thing he’s ever experienced.

He credited bear spray, administered as the beast gnawed at his hands, legs and neck, nearly killing him outright, with saving his life.

Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are now pushing to have grizzlies removed from the protected species list in order to manage their numbers through hunting.

Samantha Justice, 25, told the outlet she wished bears were open to hunting, saying, “They must be afraid of us.”

Justice had booked rafting trips on a river where grizzlies charged two boats and always carries a rifle when he’s in the woods.

As grizzly bear advocates fight to maintain their protections, they say the population is nothing compared to the 50,000 animals that roamed the western United States two centuries ago.

David Mattson, a retired federal wildlife researcher, added: “We’re talking about an icon of our Western heritage and the last of the last.”

Mattson believes bears and humans can coexist as long as safety precautions are taken.

Despite the return of the situation and the concern of the inhabitants of the region, human deaths remain rare.

Since 1992, 165 human injuries have been recorded, including 10 deaths.

In Yellowstone, there is an average of only one grizzly bear attack per year due to bear-proof trash cans, widespread use of bear spray and other safety measures.

But around the park, the number of conflicts with animals has increased from 50 per year in the 1990s to more than 400 in recent years.

The animals are known to burglarize buildings, kill livestock, pet dogs and fight with people, according to Frank van Manen, a research wildlife biologist for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.

The team also found that the bears’ range has expanded to 27,000 square miles since 1990.

Van Manen told the outlet that the biggest increase in conflict is occurring in areas that have been reclaimed by bears and are now filled with humans.

He added that grizzlies have learned that it is easier to prey on livestock or steal trash than to hunt for food, saying: “They are incredibly intelligent and inventive animals.”

Due to this resurgence, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to remove grizzly bears from the endangered species list in 2017.

But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 accepted a complaint by environmental and tribal groups that the bears should remain protected.

Montana and Wyoming have filed petitions to have the grizzly bear removed from the list again.

The outlet reported that Wyoming spends about $2 million a year on bear conflicts, including $500,000 for losses such as livestock.

Fish and Wildlife officials say they are studying the situation in all contiguous states, not just Yellowstone, with a decision expected next year.