Changes in bears tied to less accessible garbage
The Sitka area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said he doesn't doubt a Tenakee Springs man was legally justified in shooting two brown bears in August.
Phil Mooney said he is sure the man, who was not identified, acted in defense of life or property, as state law allows, in the community about 45 miles southwest of Juneau. He said the reason the case isn't closed is that one of the required reports explaining the man's justifications hasn't reached his office.
In Southeast Alaska, bears have been causing no more trouble than usual this year, Mooney said. Still, some aggressive bears have had to be shot. He recalled two in Hoonah, four or five in Angoon and one in Sitka - which had charged a veterinarian and eaten his dog.
Mooney said most of the problems are with young bears who "haven't found their place in the bear world."
Outside of Juneau, where black bears are commonly reported as a nuisance, other communities are dealing with brown bears which "don't tolerate people as well," Mooney said. The problems are worst where bears have easy access to garbage and food meant for people or dogs.
He said Juneau has been doing a good job at restricting bears' access to garbage, and other communities are working in the same direction.
Juneau residents might wonder if black bears are becoming more aggressive, considering recent police reports of bears breaking into locked enclosures to get garbage.
Neil Barten, Juneau area biologist for Fish and Game, said the bears' changing behavior can be linked to people doing a better job of securing their trash.
"People never used to have (garbage) enclosures," he said.
Bears who have learned to eat people's garbage can be frustrated by enclosures. When they pull and tug at the enclosures, sometimes they learn they can break into them.
"These bears have been around a long time, and, really, they are animals we're going to have to get rid of," Barten said.
This season, Barten has learned more about how bears live, and he hopes to learn more during the winter. A female bear trapped while raiding trailer park garbage was moved to the wilderness and fitted with a collar that records her movements using global positioning.
The GPS collar didn't pop off on Sept. 15 as it was supposed to, but it certainly continues to record the bear's movements, Barten said. He could wait until the bear hibernates before collecting the collar and its data. He said the radio transmitter tells him the bear is staying up against Thunder Mountain.
"It may run into the trailer parks at night. We don't know," he said.
Bears shouldn't be a problem for much more of the year with hibernation coming, he said. Depending on the weather, the bears should "go to sleep" by the end of November. They usually come back around the middle of April, he added.
• Tony Carroll can be reached at tony.carroll@juneauempire.com.