A grizzly bear has been spotted in the Upper Missouri River Breaks for the first time in over a century.
American Prairie, which operates a 450,000 acre nature reserve in the region, released a game camera image of the bear. They say the image was taken in late October at the historic PN ranch near Winifred.
Grizzly populations have increased since the species was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, and have begun to spread out from western Montana’s mountains into the prairies of eastern and central Montana.
Bears were also seen in the Pryor Mountains south of Billings and the Shields Valley north of Livingston this summer.
At their peak, grizzly bears numbered more than 50,000 in the Lower 48. They roamed from the West Coast to the Great Plains, from northern Alaska to…
