A female grizzly bear transplanted to the west Cabinet mountains in 2005 has emerged from her den once again with no cubs.

The finding was somewhat disappointing for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Wayne Kasworm because the intent of the state and federal "augmentation" program is to enhance reproduction in the threatened Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear population.

"She's an adult, and I expected she would have cubs and she did not come out with cubs," Kasworm said.

The bear was the first in more than 10 years to be transplanted into the Cabinet-Yaak recovery area. It was moved from the North Fork Flathead drainage to the Spar Lake area in fall 2005. The bear came out of hibernation the following spring without cubs.

"She's been in that same area, going on for two years now, so that's a good sign," Kasworm said.

"We did capture a male within her home range last fall, and he's now wearing a radio collar," he added. "I get other sightings of single bears reported from that area of the west Cabinets, and quite possibly those are additional males."

Last year, a younger female bear was relocated from the Flathead National Forest to the Cabinets.

Kasworm located that bear and another female bear in the Yaak that also is fitted with a radio collar. Neither is of breeding age yet so neither was expected to have cubs this spring.

The augmentation program is expected to continue this year.

"We're looking at trying to move another bear over to the Cabinets," Kasworm said, adding that state bear management specialists could start looking for a "candidate" bear as soon as this week.

Bears that are selected must be young females with no history of human conflicts or management problems.

The augmentation program is proceeding largely because of the success of similar transplants to the Cabinets in the early 1990s.

From 1990 to 1994, four female bears were moved from British Columbia, with no certainty of how they would fare or whether they would reproduce.

From 2002 to 2005, Kasworm set up scent-baited sites surrounded by barbed wire to snag hair from bears in the Cabinet and Yaak regions. Last year, a genetic analysis of hair samples revealed that one of the transplanted females was still in the Cabinets.

"And furthermore, we know that some of the bears that we got hair samples from were offspring of that bear," Kasworm said.

"She had three children and two grandchildren, to put it in those kinds of terms," he said. "Not only has that bear reproduced, but her offspring reproduced.

"Based on the success of that bear, at least, we are continuing with the augmentation program," he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com