Officer kills rare bluish bear

2-year-old grew addicted to trash and became aggressive.

JUNEAU -- Police shot and killed a glacier-color black bear Wednesday that fed on garbage and turned aggressive.

The bear was shot at the Thunder Mountain Trailer Park in the Mendenhall Valley by an officer around 9 a.m. It was the first bear destroyed in Juneau this year, other than a brown bear that had been struck by a car, said Neil Barten, area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

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http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/3479499p-3510487c.html

Day before yesterday I was in the book store and saw a novel entitle "The Blue Bear". The flyleaf stated that you could live all your life in Alaska and never see one of these, they're so rare. The Native Americans believe that to kill one invites bad luck and trouble.

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DEMMAN

Poor little bear. Didn't know any better. I wonder why they decided to shoot it as opposed to trapping it and letting it go somewhere else? I realize the officer felt threatened, but still seems like they let this get out of control.

A shame they didn't get a pic of it, alive I mean, before they shot it.

has just recently authorized the mass killing of black bears in Alaska to decrease the moose mortality rate from bears, so that lower-48 pinhead hunters can shoot the moose instead.

The bear relocation would have been easy, but Murkowski wants tourist dollars coming in to Alaska at the expense of wildlife.

for the same reason. "Garbage bears" are more of a tricky proposition, because relocating them usually doesn't work, they're still aggressive and have lost their natural shyness of people. Most of these bears are in Denali Park, where the asshole tourists cannot be spanked too hard for feeding the "cute little critters".

I just think the lower 48 hunters are lousy hunters. Besides, if they thin the black bear too much, the moose calves die off, the wolves become more aggressive....... Non-scientific "game management" is a complete contradiction in terms.

Bear relocation, tho, Sub is NOT that easy in a state that has so few roads. Juneau isn't even connected to the rest of Alaska by road - it's either float or fly. Same with many, many other areas. So, bear relocation becomes a fly-out proposition, which is prohibitively expensive. With all the tax and royalty breaks the Repukes give the oil companies, the state just cannot afford it.


The white lines are our only roads. This state is much, much bigger than most people can imagine, not to mention the unique terrain. It takes at least 8 hours to drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage (depending on weather, longer). This does NOT excuse Frank the Skank's shitty game management style - every single person on the state Board of Game is a hunter, a guide or a trophy-hunter.

every other week or so for a couple of years. I worked with the ADFG game biologist in Tok (the contraversial Dave Kellyhouse) and he and others had black bear baiting stations (dead cows covered with heavy logs) to attract bears for hunters.

I know it is cost prohibitive to helicopter that 'blue' bear out of range of Juneau....it's just too bad it had to end that way.

I remember sitting with the locals at the Gulkana landfill in beach chairs sipping beer while watching the bears feed on the trash. The local amusement was hilarious. Many summer evenings after supper it was normal to grab a sixpack and head for the dump.

BTW, in case you haven't realized it yet, you live in the most interesting and scenic state in the country. And with any luck, my request to transfer from the florida office to the Anchorage will happen in the next couple of months.

I live halfway between Homer and Anchorage on that map.
Last fall I was eating dinner at a riverside restaurant
in Soldotna and looked out onto the river. A grizzly
bear was playing along the other shore, frollicking in
the water like a kid. What a great place.

I hated that the bear was killed. I think, had the Fish & Game folks given it a little time, we could have made other arrangements. But they didn't. We did manage to save a "spirit bear" last year by having it, and only it, prohibited as a game animal:


White Spirit Bear

Of course, that was last August, before Frank took over as guv and appointed his daughter to his senate seat.

Be sure and let me know if your transfer comes through! I'll buy the first round! Anchorage is much easier to get to now from Fairbanks (Parks Highway) than when you had to take the Richardson to Glennallen and the Glenn to Anchorage. I've even driven the Parks at 40 below. PM me with the news!

Thanks for that info. I sure wish I could come up there sometime in Summer. I always tell everyone when the sun rises and sets up there. It's not the bear's fault since people keep moving in their terrority. We're even having bear sightings in Marin County where they haven't been around for 100 years, and then there's that bear that got mad 'cause he couldn't open the cooler so bit a guys head in a tent instead. I've known of campers who leave stuff out on purpose so they can "see the cute little bears". Idiots.

trash, there is not much else to do. They have tried re-locating them, but they always come back to the garbage.

It is not the bears fault, it is the people.

And when one goes violent in defense of garbage, well, would you be as sad if the bear killed a 2 year old in a backyard?

and, relocation never works, we had one bear with a collar who covered 1100 miles in a little over a month to get back to garbage.

How do you propose to deal with a problem like that?

Like WJMS said, what if he kills a kid next?

can than the bear proof ones. If someone attracts a
bear with their messes, they should be fined about
ten thousand dollars. If you are going to live in a
wild life place, then be responsible. You would see
people do the right thing if it cost them.

RV, who HATES anything named murtaxski

gets all up in arms.
NPS tried for years to require people to have them, and it took a bunch of killed tourists in one year to make congress notice.

LOCK UP THE DAMN DOG FOOD - BEARS LOVE IT.

The fish-n-feathers folks have to kill 2 or 3 bears at Chena Lakes and Two Rivers every year because of this.

Murtaxski - I love it!

Damn!!!

Damn them!!!

That bear was so beautiful, the little mutant.
Its so typical of the world now. KILL! KILL! KILL!

RV, pissed off in Alaska

Perhaps if humans didn't intrude on the bear's land, build homes, tear down their forests and pollute the rivers, streams they wouldn't have to come down to the city and look for food. :grr: