Each time, the bears got into trouble because of either bird feeders, chickens, garbage, grain or a surprise encounter.
Here are the stories:
James Beeman told game wardens he heard a commotion in his chicken coop at about 4 a.m. and thought it was probably a skunk.
He grabbed a small .410 shotgun and a head lamp and went outside to investigate.
When he reached the coop, the door had been broken off and two grizzly cubs were standing outside. As they ran away, the grizzly sow emerged from the coop carrying a chicken.
The sow saw Beeman, dropped the chicken and charged from 15 feet. Beeman fired at the bear point-blank, hitting it in the nose.
The bear dropped dead at Beeman's feet.
FWP game warden Jim Roberts said the small shot apparently entered the bear's brain cavity.
Beeman called FWP immediately after the incident and Roberts did the investigation. Everything matched Beeman's story, he said.
"This is a justifiable case of self-defense," said Warden Capt. Ed Kelly.
Since Sunday, game wardens and a bear biologist have tried to capture the sow's cubs, to no avail.
If they are captured, they will be sent to the FWP animal shelter in Helena. The sow was an older bear, probably 13 years of age.
The second dead grizzly was also a sow, also with a pair of cubs.
However, this adult female was well-known to biologists and game managers.
In May 2002, the grizzly was accidentally trapped near Ovando, and was radio-collared and released.
The sow denned and emerged with three cubs last May. One cub disappeared later that month.
But the sow and the two remaining cubs remained in the Ovando area, gradually growing tolerant of people and getting into more and more trouble.
They dug up a horse buried near one residence. They frequented houses where there were bird feeders and compost piles. They started entering buildings in search of grain, birdseed and garbage.
FWP officials said they made numerous requests to landowners to keep all food away from the bears. They also hazed the bears, hoping to encourage them to move away.
But the sow and her cubs just got bolder and bolder, and eventually entered homes to get grain.
By summer's end, FWP biologists and wardens had cleaned up or made bear-proof grain sheds on several ranches. Buildings that did not have doors were electrified to keep out bears.
Still, the conflicts continued and the female bear and cubs were captured on Oct. 8 and 9.
Then work began to find a suitable release site for the bears. But because of their interest in humans and human food, no one wanted the grizzlies.
So the adult female was euthanized at FWP's Bozeman Wildlife Research Lab, and the cubs are under the care of agency officials.
They will be denned later this fall in an undisclosed location, the agency reported Tuesday.
The third incident involving a grizzly bear and humans occurred near the Bob Marshall Wilderness boundary east of Condon.
In that case, a man shot at a grizzly in self-defense, and the fate of the bear is unknown.
FWP officials said the man had packed in a hunting camp for his son and grandson, who were hiking into the area to hunt goats.
After setting up camp, the man went scouting for goats. In the evening, as he was headed back to camp, the man encountered a grizzly bear along a small creek flowing through a subalpine basin.
As the man tried to back out of the situation, the grizzly approached, stopped, then approached again.
Finally, after about 20 minutes, the bear came within 30 yards of the man and charged.
The man shot the bear, which ran away. The man returned to camp, tried to find the bear the next morning, but could not.
After the hunters returned from the backcountry, they reported the incident to Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Kelly, the warden captain in Kalispell, said the shooting was considered justifiable self-defense.
Because of the remote location and because so much time elapsed between the shooting and the report - four days - FWP officials did not try to find the bear.
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
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