According to state bear management specialists, the bear they were forced to kill Oct. 5 was first nabbed back in August of 1999, when she was Dumpster diving with her two cubs in the Glacier National Park gateway community of Coram.
Wildlife officials trucked her into the park's western border area, but she quickly led her brood back to town and cracked a chest freezer.
She was caught for the second time in September of 1999 at a rural home in Coram - after she ransacked a shed brimming with trout feed. Not long after her release, she denned in the Great Bear Wilderness.
And for about a year, officials said, the grizzly sow stayed out of trouble. Her radio collar dropped off in Glacier Park during August 2000, and for the next three years she roamed free and wide.
She ate some horse feed, officials said, some more trout feed, and she learned to avoid traps.
Finally, they caught her again in May 2004, while she and her new 2-year-old cub were once again rummaging garbage in Coram. The homeowner got a free bear-resistant trash can, and the bears got a free ride into the wilderness.
Within two months, however, she was back, caught for the fourth time on Sept. 8, 2004, while munching garbage and cat food on a Coram porch.
Remarkably, she was again trucked into the wilderness. Not remarkably, she broke into a Coram-area barn this summer, living on cat food and grain. Then another barn, more grain and muddy bear prints on the homeowner's car.
She was, however, too wily for trappers, and disappeared until mid-September when she hit another freezer.
The law finally caught up with her Oct. 5, after she and two cubs broke into a tack shed, then ambled into another building for horse grain.
Wildlife managers killed the bear and captured one of her cubs. They are attempting to trap the remaining cub, after which both youngsters will take up residence in a zoo.
On the same day she was killed, however, another bear was granted clemency by biologists who hope relocation will lead to rehabilitation.
The 2-year-old male grizzly was caught after ranging too close to human houses, and on Oct. 5 was released into the Northwest Peaks area, not far from Yaak.
That 200-pound bear was fitted with a radio collar, biologists said, and will be closely monitored.
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