BUTTE — Wildlife officials may finally be able to trap the two black bear cubs that have been wandering through Butte for the past two days in a tree in the middle of Montana Tech’s campus. Unfortunately, they had to shoot the cubs’ mother. That decision was very disturbing for many people.
“It just really sucks. I mean, I didn’t hear of her bothering anyone, so I think they should have waited a little bit before killing her. She has the babies and it would have been nice if she had survived,” said Butte resident Topanga Sturdevant.
On August 27, a black bear with her two cubs was first spotted rummaging through garbage on the west side of Butte. Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials eventually shot the bear at 2:40 a.m. the next day on the Montana Tech campus. Police reported that the bear was tranquilized twice with a tranquilizer, but it was ineffective.
“I mean, it’s sad that the mom died, but hopefully they can protect the babies,” said Montana Tech student Nadia Crawford.
The cubs were found in a tree on campus. FWP officers, with the assistance of Campus Security, erected a fence around the tree to prevent the cubs from leaving the area. Baited traps were set to capture the cubs.
All this happened during the first week of the fall semester, so the boys caught the attention of many people on campus.
“I was sitting in class and I was like, ‘There’s a bear, guys.’ And all my friends were looking at me and thinking, ‘That’s a momma with cubs!’ Dude, oh man, this could be really good or really bad,” said student Skyler Fox.
