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State wildlife officials worked through the weekend to capture a trio of apple-eating grizzly bears visiting homes near Columbia Falls, but as of Monday they had succeeded in penning just two of the grizzlies. Meanwhile, a trap set for a fourth grizzly habituating a residential area in Kalispell was pulled Monday following a week that brought an unusual amount of interface between grizzlies and humans in the Flathead Valley. In Columbia Falls, a female grizzly and two yearlings were apparently attracted to an orchard of just-ripened apples on Middle Road, off of Highway 206 near the Silver Bullet Bar. The bears were spotted eating apples within 50 feet of residences, but did not act aggressively.

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