Montana requires passing a bear identification test for a bear hunting tag. The area that they were hunting is a grizzly bear reintroduction area, the Cabinet Yaak area. (
http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/CYEbeardna.htm)
Quote:
Bear ID Test (duplicate certificate)
Montana black bear hunting regulations require that all black bear hunters be tested to ensure they can spot the subtle differences between black bears and grizzly bears. A hunter must present a passing certificate from the black bear identification test to purchase a black bear tag.
|
http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/planahunt/...r/default.html
Sadly, the 21 yo hunter will not be able to mount a self defense case since he fired the first shot in a hunting mode and then tracked down the wounded bear to kill it. He will need a good lawyer and probably will take some sort of plea deal. Even though it appears he is in the wrong, I suspect that the Feds don't want the publicity of another trial after all of the negative backlash after the Jeremy Hill prosecution. Quite sad and difficult case.