Yellowstone's "Grand Old Man."

May 2, 2016
By Karin Brulliard

This grizzly, nicknamed "Scarface," cares little about the paparazzi that follow him around Northern Yellowstone

There are more than 750 grizzly bears (click here) in and around Yellowstone National Park, but none as famed as a brawny, cocoa-colored male dubbed No. 211.

He was best known by his nickname, which was inspired by his fight-maimed face and damaged right ear: Scarface. He roamed far, wide and often within sight of delighted tourists and their cameras. He was captured, collared and released by biologists 17 times, making him "one of the most studied bears," in the region, according to the Seattle Times.

By last fall, those scientists were warning that Scarface might not make it through the winter: He'd dropped from a peak of 600 pounds to 338 pounds. At 25 years old, he was elderly.

They were right that his time was short. But Scarface didn't die of natural causes. Last week, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department released a statement that said No. 211 had been fatally shot in November near Gardiner, Mont., just outside Yellowstone's northern edge....

Sometimes poachers will drive wildlife outside the border of protected areas to kill them and they call it hunting.  There should be a buffer to the borders of protected areas where hunters can't kill. It is unfortunate to think hunters simply wait for a break to kill very healthy wildlife.