By MICHAEL JAMISON, October 26, 2007.

KALISPELL - A grizzly bear cub struck by a car and killed on U.S. Highway 2 near Glacier National Park late Wednesday is the third grizzly in a month to die on Montana roadways.

“It used to be pretty darn unusual for a grizzly bear to be killed on the road, and now we've had three in as many weeks,” said John Fraley, spokesman at the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks office in Kalispell. “A lot of people think there's just more bears out there moving around.”

The cub killed Wednesday near Essex weighed about 100 pounds, Fraley said, a lightweight compared to the 700-pound male griz killed last week by a truck near Lincoln.

It marked the third grizzly bear death on that stretch of road in the past four years.

A week earlier, on Oct. 9, another large adult male was hit and killed on the highway south of Condon, not long before sundown.

That bear had been captured several weeks before, Fraley said, suspected of breaking into Swan Valley cabins. It was later exonerated, however, by DNA comparison with bear blood and hair found at the homes.

“They're definitely out there and on the move,” Fraley said of the bears.

That's because it is October, and the big bruins are in hyperphagia, a state of compulsive overeating, packing on fat for the winter. They're rambling across the landscape, sniffing out every calorie, eating perhaps 20 hours a day.

The rush for free food occasionally sends the bears into orchards and cupboards, through backyards and, yes, across highways. At least eight grizzlies and 30 black bears have died on Montana roads this year, a record by any measure.

It doesn't help that the huckleberry crop “was earlier than recent years, probably because of the hot, dry conditions this past summer,” said Wayne Kasworm, Libby-based grizzly coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Many high-elevation berry patches have either already ripened and disappeared, or did not produce well this year. Without those berry patches, more bears are being seen in the valleys looking for other foods.”

Kasworm said seasonal reports of troublesome black bears finally are on the decline this fall, “probably because they are beginning to prepare or enter winter dens.”

But grizzlies may have a month or more to eat before that long winter's night, depending on weather and individual bear health.

And that, Fraley said, means people need to remain keenly aware of their bear neighbors. Keep pet food inside, and keep a lid on any smelly trash. Bird feeders need to come down, and fruit should be picked and stored away.

That's because the answer to “Why did the bear cross the road?” is all too often: “To get to the food on the other side.”

Kasworm also warned hunters that bears will track down gut piles and wounded animals, and sometimes are attracted to game carcasses left in the field overnight. More than one Montana hunter has been mauled this year, in fact, and Kasworm suggests quartering that elk, and hanging it high in a tree.

As for motorists, bear biologists seem to have no words of wisdom other than to slow down a bit and to not be overly surprised if a grizzly darts out into traffic.

“What we're thinking is there must be more cars out there, or more bears out there, or both,” Fraley said. “Whatever it is, something's sure going on.”