Scarface, a Yellowstone icon, is gone

[PaulGS]

Full article:

http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20160501/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/160509991

May 1, 2016

Scarface is dead.

No, not the character from the 1983 movie starring Al Pacino. This Scarface was the real deal — a 25-year-old Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear who received his nickname from the extensive scarring on the right side of his head.

Scarface the bear and Scarface the movie character do have one other thing in common besides their name, though: they both died of gunshot wounds.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks confirmed Monday that the male grizzly bear shot in late November 2015 north of Gardiner was the bear known to researchers as No. 211 — Scarface.

Scarface was well known in Yellowstone by biologists and photographers. He was first collared after being captured when he was 3 years old and had been recaptured 16 times after that, unprecedented for the average grizzly.

"In his prime, he was about 600 pounds," said Kerry Gunther, bear management biologist in Yellowstone National Park. "That's about as big as they get in Yellowstone.

Edited May 16, 2016 by PaulGS

[ppine]

The bears around the Park have names and are well known. They are followed around mercilessly which is hard on them.  It is unfortunate this bear got shot, but he was probably in the last summer of his life.  His failing health may have contributed to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.