Anchorage Residents Like the Wildlife

... roaming through our city, that is. In a story in Sunday's paper, there's this:

Anchorage: You like having moose and bears as neighbors -- you just don't want any more of them.

Park users in particular say wildlife makes the city "more interesting and special" and see the animals as a point of pride. Bears are less welcome than moose, but 60 percent of Anchorage opposes the idea of mapping out special bear-free zones were bears would be killed on arrival.

~ snip ~

Among the findings:

• Anchorage residents who never see bears in their neighborhoods generally don't want them to start coming around. But just more than half of all residents oppose killing a few bears every year to reduce the numbers.

• Two-thirds of those surveyed support legal, regulated hunting as a way to control black and brown bear populations in Far North Bicentennial Park.

• About 85 percent support a rule requiring people who live in neighborhoods frequented by bears to use bear-proof trash containers, and 84 percent support levying fines for failing to properly store garbage to prevent bear troubles.

• Nearly everyone (94 percent of those surveyed) has enjoyed watching moose in the Anchorage area even though more than half of drivers and passengers report swerving or braking to avoid them.

Slightly more than 1 in 10 people polled have been in a vehicle that hit a moose, according to the survey.

Read the rest here. I must say I'm encouraged by the high percentage of folks who maintain the realistic attitude that we share the land with the moose, brown/black/grizzly bears, wolves, ptarmigan, and other critters that live in the place we call home.