From Cowboy State Daily:
Since 1980, 63 bears have been killed along a stretch of rail line that goes over Marias Pass and the Great Bear Wilderness, according to reports from state and federal wildlife agencies. The worst year on record was 2019, when eight grizzlies were killed by trains, and three have been killed so far this year.
Many of them likely died during a "drunken attempt" to outrun the trains, a Wyoming bear expert said.
The article's author, Mark Heinz, goes on to explain that grain being transported in the railcars sometimes spills out and is left along the tracks. In the right conditions, that grain then ferments — leaving a tasty trail of drunken treats alongside the train tracks. The problem is not that the drunken grizzlies get aggressive, or even clumsy — it's that they chow down on the fermented grain, then pass out drunk right on the tracks.
Pour one out for my grizzly homies.
Drunk Grizzlies Keep Getting Hit By Trains In Montana [Mark Heinz / Cowboy State Daily]
