Fourteen bears killed near home where occupant was allegedly feeding them
BOZEMAN, Montana––That “A fed bear is a dead bear” was reiterated on September 24 and 25, 2026, near Bozeman, Montana, 90 miles north of Yellowstone National Park.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks personnel killed 14 black bears, the agency disclosed, “after receiving a report that someone was illegally feeding the animals at a home north of the city,” KBZK television news in Bozeman said.
“These bears were unafraid of humans and stopped relying on natural foods, which created a human safety risk,” Montana game warden Josh Leonard told media.
“Wardens rescued one bear cub”
“An investigation into why the bears were on this property is ongoing,” Leonard added.
Continued KBZK, “Wardens rescued one bear cub from the property. That cub is now at a wildlife facility in Helena. Officials hope to place it in an accredited zoo. They note that zoo placement is a very limited option and is not always possible.”
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks issued the usual warnings that state law, as in most states, “strictly bans providing supplemental feed to game animals,” KBZK summarized, “urging everyone to keep garbage and pet food secured at all times. Bird feeders and other attractants must also be secured,” KBZK reminded.
“Authorities recommend using bear-resistant trash cans and electric fencing.”
Victims of drought
But more is going on involving bear/human conflict, both in the Rocky Mountains and in the Sierra Nevadas, and everywhere else in the U.S. and Canadian west with both bears and people.
Bears, both black bears and grizzlies, are also among the most prominent and vulnerable animal victims of drought driven by global warming.
“A dry winter — followed by a late freeze in Montana — has left the animals short on natural foods like chokecherries, huckleberries, and whitebark pine nuts. So now, as they load up on calories for winter, they’ve become increasingly desperate, venturing closer to people and aggressively dining on human garbage, compost and, in some cases, the contents of people’s pantries,” wrote Nick Mott for High Country News just before word of the Bozeman bear killings became public.
Worse in Colorado
Bad as the plight of bears is in Montana, it seems to be worse in Colorado. As of the end of August, Colorado wildlife wardens had killed 294 bears in 2026, relocating 98, three times as many “nuisance” bears as were killed and moved in 2025.
Colorado nuisance bear incident reports had increased from 3,680 in 2025 to 8,672 in 2026.
“Incidental feeding is one thing,” mentioned Mott, after reviewing the many ways people accidentally feed bears with careless handling of garbage and bird-feeders, “but intentional feeding is another. And, since the spring of 2025, wildlife managers and residents [around Red Lodge, Montana] suspect that people are doing the latter.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Lynn Rogers
“At a community forum that year,” Mott recalled, “one resident stood up with a pile of academic papers extolling the work of Lynn Rogers, a controversial Minnesota bear biologist who hand-feeds and walks with bears. Rogers advocates for something called ‘diversionary feeding’ — the notion that feeding bears near populated areas can keep the animals out of trouble.”
(See Bad for bears, people, & their wallets: the myth of “diversionary feeding”)
The myth of diversionary feeding has been refuted for as long and as thoroughly as the self-perpetuated and scientifically illiterate myths of anti-vaxxers.
Nonetheless, people tend to like to see bears, easier to do when baiting the bears into view; tend to empathize with hungry bears, who in preparation for winter need to consume as many calories per day as 20 average-sized people; and tend to be easily lulled into imagining hungry bears are just big teddies, as harmless as Yogi and Boo Boo.
Dogs are no help
People also tend to believe that having their dogs with them on a hike, or in their yards when at home in bear country, will keep bears away.
Jeff and Mallory Wilson of rural Trinity County, California found out otherwise the hard way at about 4:00 a.m. on September 19, 2026, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Aidin Vaziri reported.
The Wilsons survived. Their French bulldog Cassie did not.
“According to their friend Marika Judi Graham,” Vaziri wrote, “Jeff let Cassie outside after the dog woke him with a bark. When he went back out to let her inside, a black bear charged him, knocking him into the side of the house and breaking two ribs.
“The bear continued to bite and claw”
“The bear continued to bite and claw Jeff. Cassie then went after the bear.
“Mallory woke to what Graham described as Jeff and Cassie screaming and ran outside,” Vaziri continued. “She found the bear holding Cassie in his mouth while Jeff was on the ground, injured and bleeding.
“Mallory grabbed a piece of patio furniture and struck the bear in an effort to free the dog, according to the account.
“Graham said the bear then attacked Mallory, knocking her down and grabbing her by the back of the head before fleeing.”
The Wilsons escaped with “broken ribs, bite and claw wounds, lacerations, and neck injuries, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser organized by another longtime friend, Rachel Moscon,” Vaziri detailed.
Bear dogs vs. most dogs
Some dogs, like Cassie, will charge a bear to protect their person. Most will not.
Dogs bred and trained to hunt bears, as a pack, will corner and hold a bear, but will not actually engage with the bear, if they can avoid it, until the hunter with the rifle gets there.
More typical dog behavior around bears will include a bluff charge, then a high-speed retreat back to their person, who to the dog means safety, often with the infuriated bear right behind.
Explained Sam Anderson for Outside on August 13, 2026, “Tom Smith, a wildlife biologist with Brigham Young University, has worked with bears since the early 1990s. A 2026 study he led, published in The Journal of Wildlife Management, found that the odds of a bear conflict for hikers with a pet dog ‘more than doubled’ compared to those without.
70% human injury rate in dog/bear conflicts
“Off-leash dogs increased the risk even more: In those encounters, owners suffered a 70% injury rate.”
Summarized Anderson, “The study analyzed 326 human-bear conflicts that involved domestic dogs and the three North American bear species,” black bears, grizzlies, and polar bears.
“Dogs initiated 54% of the incidents, which caused injuries to 170 people,” Anderson wrote.
“Sadly, dogs suffered more than 10 times as many fatalities as their owners. Of the 176 incidents they caused, 56 dogs died, compared to five humans.”
But did the dogs at least prove useful in alerting their humans to the presence of bears?
According to Tom Smith, dogs warned their humans of the presence of a bear in only 9.2% of the incidents, “and dogs did not often try to help their owners after an attack began,” Smith reported.
The safest approach to living with bears, in short, is to not feed the bears, and don’t feed your dogs to bears, either, under the illusion that the dogs will protect you.
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