THE FIRST GRIZZLY WAS FOUND LYING IN THE 15TH TEE BOX eating a maggot-infested carp like it was corn on the cob. The neighbouring Marias River had flooded, Scott Lennemann, golf course superintendent at Marias Valley Golf & Country Club, told me. The retreating water then left behind a lunch buffet of dead carp, which the lucky bear feasted on.

I heard about Lennemann’s golf course guest through the small-town grapevine that connects the scattered communities across the Montana prairie I call home. I knew – or thought I did – that the only big animals roaming the wide grassy valleys were steers fattening up to make next summer’s barbecue. Sure, Montana had massive bears (up to 320 kg), but in the Rockies. Marias Valley was in Shelby, Montana, 145 km east of Glacier National Park, and fits the description of