A Montana resident found out the hard way this week that feeding bears can be counterproductive and cause their deaths.

Five black bears were captured and euthanized by Montana wildlife officials near the Idaho-Montana border over the past few days after neighbors complained a Heron-area person was feeding them.

State Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say the bears were extremely habituated and food conditioned and posed a danger to people who lived in the area.

One of the adult male bears weighed 485 pounds while an 18-year-old female weighed 290 pounds, which is unusually high for black bears.

The bears were trapped and tranquilized and then euthanized with drugs that render the carcasses unsalvagable, so the bodies were buried in a landfill to prevent contact with people or other wildlife.

Officials will continue to monitor the area to make sure all the habituated bears have been removed.

FWP is working with the Sanders County attorney to determine if charges will be filed for violating the state law that prohibits the feeding of wildlife, and the food sources have been removed.

Region 1 Fish and Game Commissioner Tony McDermott said feeding wildlife isn't illegal in Idaho, but it's highly discouraged.

"A fed bear is a dead bear," he said, because habituated bears need to be exterminated. It'll stick around where it's fed and gets into trouble, often by eating garbage. Feeding moose and animals with their young can also cause a safety problem.

He suggests watching bears - taking photos of them from a distance is fine - but don't get too close, and don't bait them.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game Conservation Officer Josh Stanley said the number of bears is highly regulated by the year's berry crop - it's been an OK year for huckleberries and therefore not many bear complaints have been made.

"When you have lots of huckleberries, the bears ... don't have much contact with humans," he said. If not, they tend to come down to town and mess with people.

IDFG doesn't count bears the same way as other wildlife, but it pays attention to the age of the harvested bears and monitors the age structure. The goal is to harvest a wide age range of bears each year, which shows there isn't a reproduction problem.

"Bears are really prolific in our country anyway, so they don't require much management," he said.