WILDLIFE -- It's been a rough year for bears as they've tried to navigate fires and find food in a bad berry year complicated by drought.

• A well-publicized collared grizzly bear was shot by a hunter near Wallace.  Details on that case still have not been released.
• Last week a black bear had to be tranquilized and removed from a tree in a north Spokane neighborhood.
• Numerous bears are being killed along highways.

But in some cases, the bear's get a chance to turn the tables on vehicles.  We've all heard about the Yosemite National Park bears that have honed vehicle break-ins to an art form.

Montana black bears go about it this way, according to a recent story by Brett French of the Billings Gazette:

A black bear that entered and then got trapped inside a Toyota Camry recently south of Red Lodge demolished the interior of the car, went to the bathroom and finally exited by bolting out through the front windshield when it was startled by a human.

“The whole inside is destroyed,” said Greg Creasy, who shot photos of the car that was parked outside the Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association’s lodge near the base of Mount Maurice.

Despite the destruction, the car’s owner — retired Pittsburgh middle school teacher Ellen Stolpe — said she laughed because the incident was so unusual.

“I guess it’s part of the Montana experience to get claw marks on the dashboard,” she said.

The incident was one of several over the the span of a few days in September. Earlier in the week a bear chewed up two motorcycles to get to food inside saddlebags while the bikes were parked at Rock Creek Resort, also south of Red Lodge. And bears have broken into two homes in the area, as well.

The raids have prompted Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to remind residents and visitors to remove any food from around their homes or in their vehicles, including anything that smells like food — such as pet food and garbage.

Yet Creasy said the bear that has frequented the YRBA lodging area appears to have figured out how to open car doors.

“It did get into a couple of other cars and pulled the consoles off,” he said. “It pulled the handle off of one door.”

Advised of the break-ins when she arrived, Stolpe said she removed all of the food from her car but after four days of driving there were apparently “residual smells” that attracted the bear. With the vehicle parked on a hillside, it would have been easy for the door to slam shut behind the bear, trapping it inside, she added.

Inside the Camry, Creasy said the bear had pulled on the driver-side door so hard in an attempt to get out that it bent the metal inward. Photos show the upholstery shredded and a large pile of scat left on the floor.

“That was clearly a panic dump,” Stolpe said. “Oh my goodness, that poor bear.”

During late summer and fall bears are instinctively trying to add fat reserves for winter hibernation, so FWP suggests that residents store all garbage, barbecue grills, pet food and horse pellets in a locked building. They should also remove bird feeders from their yards and clean up