A grizzly sow that apparently lost its balance on a Glacier National Park precipice and fell about 20 feet was left partially paralyzed, leading rangers to put it down.

Rangers doing night patrol came upon the bear about 11:30 p.m. on Sunday on the park road near Rim Rock, one mile west of Logan Pass. The bear evidently had sustained severe traumatic injuries and rangers, after consulting with the park’s wildlife biologist, euthanized it.

Park staff subsequently performed a necropsy on the bear and discovered that it had "significant trauma to its thoracic vertebrae, broken ribs, and a dislocated hip."

The non-lactating female bear was estimated to be 5-7 years old and appeared to be in otherwise good health, a park release said. Rangers initially thought the bear had been hit by a car, but evidence at the scene "showed that the bear had slipped off an overhanging precipice and landed on its back in the road," it added. 

Park officials notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as required, since the grizzly bear is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and informed Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks of the incident.

There are an estimated 300 grizzly bears in Glacier National Park. Numerous state and federal agencies have worked together to manage and recover the grizzly bear population in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, including Glacier National Park.

The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem encompasses about 9,600 square miles of northwestern Montana, and includes Glacier National Park, parts of the Flathead and Blackfeet Indian Reservations, parts of five national forests (Flathead, Helena, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark and Lolo), Bureau of Land Management lands, and a significant amount of state and private lands.