Canadians' Attempted Grizzly Bear Relocation Defies Government, Ends in Death 🐻

I’m currently at the “it’s Thursday already?” phase of the workweek and am unsure as to whether or not that is a good thing as of yet.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get this Thursday morning dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about today:

• Failed efforts - Despite their best efforts, BC’s Tex the bear has been shot dead 🐻

• America’s python dog dies - Otto, the beloved companion of the Python Cowboy dies in tragic hunting accident 🐍

• New dashboard - With record numbers of sightings and conflicts, Montana launches new grizzly bear dashboard 💻

• Cash on the dash - RMEF announces funding wins in Colorado 💰

• Kids will be kids- Watch this mama bear get frustrated after the kids refuse to cross the road 🧸 

THINGS DIDN’T GO ACCORDING TO PLAN
REMEMBER WHEN A GROUP OF CANADIANS WERE DEFYING THE GOVERNMENT BY TRYING TO RELOCATE A GRIZZLY BEAR? WELL, NOW THE BEAR’S DEAD

The story of Tex the bear made headlines back in the beginning of June when a group of local residents on British Columbia’s Texada Island banded together to try and relocate the bear on their own. Citing their own experience with bear handling (somebody’s brother’s uncle was in the circus or something), the residents were planning to defy the Provincial government by relocating the massive bear themselves. 

The grassroots movement quickly got rolling and was aiming to raise upwards of $30,000, you know, for airlifting the bear and everything. But in the end, reports indicated that the local residents decided they’d be better suited to hand off the project to the area’s First Nations. 

While the BC Conservation Officer Service clapped back at the original relocation plan, version 2.0 featuring a few self-governing First Nations groups did end up garnering some government support…

🐍 America’s favorite Python Hunting Dog is Killed in Tragic Hunting Accident. Well, if you’ve spent any time binging Instagram content surrounding python hunting in Florida, you’ve likely come across Mike Kimmel’s account, who is more officially known by his half a million followers as the Python Cowboy. In addition to hand-wrangling 20-foot snakes, Mike is always accompanied by his gaggle of well-trained hunting dogs who are a marvel to behold, including his trusty German wirehaired pointer by the name of Otto who was tragically killed earlier this month during a hunt. According to Kimmel, Otto was hit by a car while the pair were chasing down invasive iguanas here in South Florida on July 5th.

Having met Mike a couple of years ago after a friend of mine had a python sighting in his yard, I was also treated to watching Otto and his other dog Moose run around the yard in search of big snakes. I watched in awe as Mike hoisted these dogs over fences and let them do their thing in search of a scent, or better yet, a nest of pythons. Though nothing was found that evening, it was a hell of an experience to watch a man and his K9 partners do what they do best and is a memory that will be etched in my mind forever.

According to Kimmel, Otto fortunately had sired a litter of puppies earlier this year and Mike has stated that he has every intention of raising up the next generation to be just like their old man. “Each dog going forward will be measured against his standard,” Kimmel said. “We owe him that much.”

🐻 Montana FWP Launches Grizzly Bear Conflict Dashboard to Track Rising Incidents. And speaking of problem grizzlies, things are heating up in Montana with a record year of run-ins already on the books. So far in 2025, the state of Montana has recorded a significant increase in grizzly bear conflicts, with 61 incidents involving 72 grizzly bears reported so far, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP). 

These conflicts, which include interactions with humans, livestock attacks, and garbage raids, are driven by the expanding grizzly bear population and their movement into new areas, particularly on both sides of the Continental Divide and the Greater Yellowstone area. The rise in conflicts has prompted FWP to release a grizzly bear conflict dashboard that will not only broadcast recent interactions and sightings, but also provide residents with prevention strategies and educational resources regarding big bears. With hopes of adding another layer of transparency surrounding grizzly bears, officials are hopeful that the new resource will mitigate dangerous encounters.

Just last week another bear was shot after charging at a Kalispell man who encountered the bear attempting to gain entry to his backyard chicken coop. Another recent incident near Troy prompted a cyclist to deploy bear spray on another aggressive bear, which fortunately, ended peacefully. Montana officials continue to recommend carrying bear spray and making noise during encounters to ensure safety for both humans and bears.

💰 RMEF Invests $3.7M in Colorado Wildlife Conservation and Hunting Projects for 2024. Last year, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) invested $3.7 million into 33 wildlife-related projects across Colorado, supporting the state’s robust elk population, the largest in North America. This funding, a collaboration with various partners, facilitated a range of initiatives including wildlife research, habitat enhancement, and the installation of wildlife-friendly fencing to ensure safe animal movement. A significant portion of the investment, which amounted to over $340,000, was directed toward opposing Proposition 127, a ballot measure aimed at banning mountain lion, bobcat, and lynx hunting, which RMEF argues threatens science-based wildlife management. 

“This funding supports the largest single-state elk population in North America by bolstering five ongoing research studies, seven wildlife-friendly fencing efforts and 10 habitat enhancement projects,” said Jenn Doherty, RMEF managing director of mission operations. “It also allocated more than $340,000 to defeat a reckless anti-hunting ballot initiative that would frustrate proven wildlife management and supported nearly a dozen hunting heritage projects.” 

Additionally, the funding supported nearly a dozen hunting heritage projects, such as mentored youth hunts and a hunter field engagement course at the Cameo Shooting and Education Complex. RMEF’s contribution of $761,760 was amplified by $2.8 million from partners, with many projects set to continue into 2025. Since its inception in 1987, RMEF has completed 894 projects in Colorado, conserving or enhancing over 509,999 acres and improving public access to 120,252 acres.

🐻 All right, kids, now you’re holding up traffic! That’s what this mama bear is thinking as she attempts to usher her small cubs across the street - not once, but twice.

As a father of four, I can relate…

🔫 Voodoo Sheriff’s Colt: We had a voodoo sheriff when I was coming up. He and Pappy were best friends. Ed McTeer turned to the black arts to extract confessions and make himself bullet-proof. It served him well one night when a desperado cut loose in some dim-lit island juke joint, five shots at close range and never cut a hair. When the solicitor tried to add attempted murder to the charges pending, Ed McTeer would have no part of it.

“There was no murder attempted,” the sheriff famously testified in court, “because there was no murder possible. It was just like he was shooting at me from a mile away.”

And then added even more famously: “I would stand the length of this court room and let a man with a pistol shoot at me all day long.”

The sheriff had a collection of old cap-and-ball Colts, the most extensive outside the Colt factory, folks said, picked up from pawnshops and felons over the years. Pappy had one the sheriff did not own, an 1862 .36 Police, factory-converted to .36 rimfire about 1880. Read the full story.

😝 A Comedy of Errors : It was an early May morning in 2017, and my friend Steve and I were heading up to my recently built hunt camp in northern Ontario. Recent can also be used to describe when Steve and I had started hunting. We had one turkey hunt worth of experience between us, so truly no idea what we were doing. I was grateful for Steve’s company as it's always nice having a buddy willing to slosh through muddy fields and scratch a few calls at some gobblers, which for some baffling reason, not all my friends were up for. 

The plan was to hunt a friend's family farm located about a half hour from our cabin. Any number of painters would have loved to open their easels on the farm and set to work as the landscape was the sort of idyllic rural dream of rolling pastures broken up with islands of hardwoods. Illuminated by the rising sun, the low hanging fog would stick to the gullies like whip cream to a spoon. I had been fortunate to have access to the same property the previous year but struck out despite seeing lots of birds and hearing lots of gobbles. I was encouraged by last year’s sightings and had a boastful yet fragile confidence built by hours upon hours of research on YouTube, podcasts, and Facebook groups. For a guy who had never really hunted turkeys before, with no mentor to speak of, I was as ready as I was ever going to be. Read the full story.

🦬 Of Bison, Ranching, Land and Life:  Playing in creeks, walking through the woods, catching a glimpse of a trout in a river, seeing a group of deer at the edge of a forest.

My favorite book of my childhood was Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I remember being unable to put it down, totally enthralled by the story of a boy surviving on his own in the Canadian wilderness.

In high school, on my bulletin board, I had photos of my favorite hockey players (Jeremy Roenick, Mats Sundin, and Bobby Orr). I also had a photo of a grizzly bear.

As the years passed, my love of nature deepened. And, by the end of high school, I started to become aware that all was not well in the natural world. This concerned me, and the more I learned, the more it upset me.

For this and other reasons, I went to law school. And in the spring of my second year, I read A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. I consumed it in a day or two. Or, more accurately, I devoured it, like that grizzly on my bulletin board would take to a winter-killed carcass in the spring. Read the full letter.

Oh, and one more thing…