AK) 18th bear killed in self-defense this year in Kenai 10-27-03

[WAGCEVP]

AK) 18th bear killed in self-defense this year in Kenai 10-27-03
Date: Oct 28, 2003 12:13 AM
Subject: (AK) 18th bear killed in self-defense this year 10-27-03
News-Miner - Past News
Address:http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~1726348,00.html
October 27, 2003

18th Kenai bear killed in defense sets record The Associated Press

KENAI--Another brown bear on the Kenai Peninsula was killed in defense
of life and property last week, bringing the total for the year to 18.

The killings are the highest number of reported shootings in defense of
life and property on record, said Jeff Selinger, area manager for the
Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

According to department records, prior to the 2001-02 year, brown bear
shootings had never exceeded 10 animals. In 2001-02, the number of brown
bear nonhunting mortalities jumped to a record high 14. Last year the
number climbed to 15.

Selinger said the reason for the increase is complicated.

"The human population on the peninsula has grown and continues to grow,"
he said. "With this, recreation into bear country has expanded, which in
recent years has led to more bear-human interactions.

"Reports from the public are that they are seeing more bears than in the
past, and all of the information I have seen indicates a healthy brown
bear population on the peninsula," Selinger said.

Another possible cause of the high rate of shootings may be a decrease
in the public's tolerance for bears after maulings in Alaska, Selinger
said.

Selinger offered a third possibility: better compliance by people
reporting bears shot in defense of life or property.

"We're hearing about them now. It's possible that 20 years ago that
wasn't the case, but it's difficult to say."

Selinger said he hopes the recent trend in bear killings does not
continue.

"We'd like to see them decrease," he said. "To do that, people need
to
be more aware of bears, bear behavior and safety practices in bear
country."

 

[Cosmoline]

I suspect it's just a bear population boom. We've had many mild winters in a row, and I'm willing to bet survival rates are higher than normal. OTOH, some of the bears who survive probably shouldn't have. Toothless old boars who wake up hungry are not what you want to run across on a hike!

 

[Baba Louie]

Yeah, but what do they use to "defend life and property"? Is there a general type of firearm or favorite round? Shotgun, handgun, rifle and caliber that strikes a majority of these poor sweet Yogis when they encroach into newly expanded human personal space?

Enquiring minds want to know...

Adios

 

[gun-fucious]

the Alaskan co-pilot is the bees knees for ursine perferation
http://www.wildwestguns.com/CoPilot_And_Guide_Rifles/body_copilot_and_guide_rifles.html

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

How does a Kodiak bear pack his lunchbox?






He treads well!

 

[Don Galt]

So, if you live in a remotish area in alaska, how do you keep bears away, so that you don't have to resort to using firearms?

Do people put wrought iron fences around their houses? And does that work?

Seems havign to defend yourself with a firearms would be a last resort...not something I would want to experience.

 

[Orthonym]

Gee, I seem to be of (at least ) three minds here.

On the one hand, we are the baddest predators on the planet, and have traditionally not taken any competition from the other ones, sometimes even exterminating them.

On the other hand, Alaskan brown bears are magnificent critters, very good at what they do, and I'd hate to live in a world with no big bears in it.

On the gripping hand, there may well be too many good-for-nothing humans on the planet; their Real-Estate developers destroying good wild-critter habitat right and left. Maybe it's just late at night and I'm grumpy, but I think some of my fellow humans could do no better with their lives than to feed themselves to bears. Aargh!


(Notice to all you folks suspecting my motives here)

I make no ethnic, racial, sexual,political, or genetic distinctions here in setting forth the above modest proposal; all that counts here is whether or not you taste good to bears.

 

[Iain]

I think there is a lot in what the guy in the article says about the rise being due to people actually reporting it now. Rightly we are more concerned about conservation, but if you are being attacked by a bear the right way to express that concern is to shoot it dead and report it to 'fish and game' so they can keep track of the numbers.

Unfortunately human interests and the interests of some animals will always be in conflict, especially where the animal concerned is a potential threat, it just needs to be balanced sensitively, none of this 'humans are evil, animals are good' nonsense.

 

[cameroneod]

So, if you live in a remotish area in alaska, how do you keep bears away, so that you don't have to resort to using firearms?

I put up a sign.

It says...


30-06
NO BEARS ALLOWED


Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Keith]

You'd have to visit the Kenai to really understand. The rivers are simply overrun with fisherman in the summer and conflict with bears is inevitable.
I suspect that almost all those bears are shot by weekenders from Anchorage, or tourists from "outside".

The good news is that Kenai is just one small corner of brown bear range in Alaska - it just happens to be the one corner you can get to by road and so it's become a sort of "Alaska-Land" theme park for 3 months of the year.

Keith

 

[Ivanimal]

We may taste good to bears but bears also have food value. I am sure more bears than that are taken every year. Still I dont think Alaska will have the same fate as California. The grizzly on our flag is the last of its kind, extinct before the first flag was ever raised.

What people dont realize is that we encroach and eliminate any threat to our kind, Jaguars were indiginous to California as well, we prevail, animals be damned.

 

[spacemanspiff]

talk to any oldtimers up here and they'll rarely tell of having to shoot a bear. typically bears are afraid of humans and will run away, unless you happen upon their feeding grounds or get between a momma and her baby.
homesteaders relied on banging pots and pans to scare the bears away more often than shooting them.

as civilization moves more and more into the wilderness, bears are getting accustomed to being around humans and are losing their fear of them. thank timothy treadwell for eliminating fear of humans from bears around katmai.

i wonder if theres a connection to the higher number of bears because of the higher number of moose due to wolves being destroyed. humans are messing with that natural ecosystem. less wolves means more moose means more for bears to feed on.

 

[Keith]

Spiff,

Have you been out on the Kenai during the salmon glut in the last few years? The fishermen are just wall-to-wall along the rivers and it gets worse every year. Even ten years ago, people would pretty much clear the streams late in the evening giving the bears a chance to come down and feed in peace. But now there's a whole slew of people who ONLY fish at night to avoid the daytime crowds.
Those bears come down again and again and are driven off by people. Those animals have a limited opportunity to get enough fat to survive the winter, and they are being denied their chance - and so they get testy enough to challenge people or they just get desperate and refuse to be driven off, and they get shot...

And if you talk to the biologists, you'll find that it's the sows that take the worst beating. Sows with cubs will take more chances than boars since they have a brood to feed. They're just hungier. When you start cutting into the breeding sows, things begin to snowball.

I think the bears have had it on the Kenai. It's just become too developed to support both tourists and bears. There will always be a few wandering over from the roadless areas, but the native bears can't last long at this rate. Years ago Kenai had the same population density of bears as Kodiak today - about one per square mile. Now, they are down to something less than one per hundred square miles! The writing is on the wall.

Keith

 

[spacemanspiff]

thats exactly why i dont fish on the kenai. least not that far up the river. dipnetting at the mouth is more fun, provided the fish are actually there to be caught.

 

[Cosmoline]

Dipnetting is the only way to go. I know fewer and fewer locals who still elbow the foreign hordes trying to get in with a pole and line.

 

[RustyHammer]

If a bear is shot in the woods, and you have your hearing protection on, does it make any sound?

 

[gun-fucious]

maybe they should install catch, photograph and release stations
with a trebuchet that flings the salmon over yonder
to where the bears await the heaven sent harvest

 

[cameroneod]

Keith hit it right on the head. Nice post, btw.

 

[Orthonym]

Well, what I said:

People I dislike should be eaten by big Alaskan brown bears. I'm not (totally) cruel, l would allow them their choice of stinking drunkenness or any other anesthetic.

Solves the bear nutrition problem, solves the people-I-dislike problem.

People I dislike? What's the number now, six billion, coming up on seven billion? I can get so grumpy...