Montana Hires First Grizzly Manager, Uses Drones for Safety

Wesley Sarmento almost got himself killed doing his job, and that near-death experience might have just saved the future of grizzly bear conservation.

When grizzly bears started returning to eastern Montana's prairies in growing numbers, the state created a brand new position in 2017: prairie-based grizzly manager. Sarmento took the job based in Conrad, a town of just 2,553 people, acting like a first responder for wildlife emergencies.

His mission was keeping both bears and humans out of trouble. Bears kept breaking into farm silos to feast on spilled grain, and Sarmento would drive long distances armed with shotguns, cracker shells, and bear spray to chase them away.

Then came the day he narrowly escaped getting mauled. "In that moment, I was like, I am gonna get myself killed," he says.

He first tried using Airedale dogs, a breed known for deterring bears, but they got distracted too easily. In 2022, he grabbed a $4,000 drone with a thermal camera and brought it to a farm where a mama grizzly and two cubs were raiding a silo.

The drone's infrared sensors found them quickly in the dark. The whirring sound of the blades drove them away from the property, likely because bears instinctively hate sounds that resemble swarming bees. "The whole thing was so clean and controlled," Sarmento says. "And I did it all from the safety of my truck."

The simple drone with just 30 minutes of battery life proved perfect for spotting bears in dangerous terrain he'd otherwise approach on foot, like dense brush or remote river bottoms.

The Ripple Effect

Now studying wildlife ecology at the University of Montana, Sarmento is designing a drone system for campus police to keep black bears away from schools. He envisions a future where AI image recognition helps drones automatically identify bears and guide them away from high-traffic areas.

This matters because it keeps bears from learning behaviors that lead to deadly conflicts. These encounters typically end badly for the bear and are occasionally fatal for humans. Every peaceful interaction is a life saved on both sides.

Grizzlies are still listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, making this comeback a conservation success story that needs protection. The technology is evolving fast, and Sarmento believes drones represent the next frontier in wildlife management.

What started as one biologist's survival instinct is becoming a blueprint for keeping humans and wildlife safely coexisting as bears reclaim their ancestral territories.