WAYWARD GRIZZLY `BIG AND BEAUTIFUL' AFTER SECOND REPORTED SIGHTING,

State wildlife officials intensified efforts to catch a wayward grizzly bear Wednesday after it was seen again in north Spokane County near the town of Clayton.

Biologists assumed the bear had retreated into a wooded haven near Nelson Peak until a man reported an encounter with the same grizzly on a gravel road just a mile outside Clayton.

The endangered animal was first seen Saturday in the county's northeast corner. A homeowner's video of the bear convinced wildlife officials to call it the first confirmed grizzly sighting in the county in 100 years.

Lyle Tuttle is certain he saw the exact same carnivore Tuesday night. He was driving home with his wife on Whittier Road, about two miles west of where the bear was first seen.

"I was coming around a corner kinda quick and the wife told me to slow down so I wouldn't hit a deer," Tuttle recalled. "Then all of a sudden there stood that bear in the middle of the road. It happened real fast. I stopped. He stood up, took a good look at us, shook, and then bolted off the road and down over the bank."

Tuttle said he routinely sees black bears in the area, and knows he saw the shoulder hump and behavior of a grizzly. "He moved like lightning. A pretty powerful boy. Big and beautiful."

It rained too much Tuesday night for wildlife officials to find grizzly tracks to verify Tuttle's story. But biologists were convinced enough by his account to move a trap into the area Wednesday.

Madonna Luers, of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the bear appears to be headed the wrong way, away from wilderness and toward civilization.

"The direction it's going is toward more people," Luers said. "It could get itself in some trouble."

Biologists hope to trap the bear and relocate it to a grizzly recovery area before it loses its fear of people.

Luers said the grizzly sighting triggered a flurry of calls from people who claim they are seeing bears. People need to realize they are most likely seeing black bears, she said.

"For every one grizzly bear in northeast Washington there are probably two, three or four hundred black bears," she said.

Luers also cautioned people against shooting the grizzly to protect livestock. Killing a grizzly is a violation of the Endangered Species Act, a felony charge that brings a maximum fine of $50,000 and a year in jail.

Tuttle said he isn't worried about the bear rummaging around his rural neighborhood.

"Luckily, I'm rid of my chickens," he said. "I keep my dog in the house. We're all right... I'm more worried about my neighbor's dog."

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