The family - a sow and her two yearling cubs - has been hanging around trails and campgrounds on the park's eastern side, north of the Two Medicine Valley near Morning Star and Oldman lakes. They weren't hassling anyone, officials said, hadn't raided any food bags or chased anyone off their breakfast bowls.
But still, there they were, big and bold and, according to park rangers, showing "no fear around humans."
And so in the last days of July, bear managers captured the mama bear and fitted her with a radio collar.
A week later, they returned with exploding cracker shells, rubber bullets, shotguns that fired beanbags, even a small pack of Karelian bear dogs, a species that lives to bully big bruins. For more than a month, the arsenal of harassment has been carefully aimed at the grizzly trio, in hopes of scaring them back into the wilds.
During their efforts, park managers closed miles of trail in the area, trying to create "a controlled environment" in which to do their work. It was, they said, the work of saving grizzlies, which must often be killed after having become all-too familiar with humans and their leftovers.
The "aversive conditioning," as the harassment is known, is designed to teach bears to high-tail it at the first whiff of a human. And if the mama bear learns a healthy respect for people, officials said, she likely will pass that lesson on to her cubs, reducing future problems.
While not often used in the park, the method has enjoyed widespread success elsewhere in the Northern Rockies, particularly when coupled with the use of Karelians.
The scare-school lessons are expected to end Sept. 17, with area trails reopening the following day. The campgrounds, however, will remain closed through the fall season due to what park rangers called the bears' "curiosity at the campgrounds."
Once the bear business is complete, officials plan to meet for a professional debriefing, with bear managers from throughout the region gathering to talk about what teaching the bears taught the humans.
Those human lessons, rangers said, likely will help to shape future troublesome grizzly decisions.
No decision, however, has yet been made regarding another Glacier grizzly with two cubs. That bear attacked a California man and his daughter during a surprise encounter on Aug. 25.
Jenna Otter, 18, has since been released from Kalispell Regional Medical Center, and her father, 44-year-old Johan Otter, was expected to be released from Seattle's Harborview Medical Center late Friday.
The pair bumped into the bear family on a blind switchback corner, approaching to within five feet before bear or human noticed the other.
Often, if a bear attacks from a defensive stance in a surprise encounter, rangers do not pursue the animal.
Regardless, both bear families should be quieting down soon, with hibernation season just around the corner. Glacier's high country was to receive considerable snow over the weekend, with fall conditions already well advanced in the mountains.
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