How Do They Count the Bears in Algonquin Park?

Bear Crashes Through Bedroom Window

Even though the local bird-cage line-slash-fishwrapper spends most of its time bashing President Trump, they still report local stories.

"Mom, Dad, there's a bear in my bedroom"

Eleven-year-old Zach Landis will never forget the sound of a black bear bursting through the double-paned window of his bedroom late Monday.

"It's hard to explain, but it's almost like a cannon burst through and hit straight past my ear," Zach said.

 

He recounted what happened from his family's South Anchorage home two days later, unscathed from the bizarre encounter.

 

Zach said he shot upright when he woke to the crash. He saw a figure the size of a grown man in his room. In the darkness and clamor, he struggled to make out what was near the foot of his bed. He watched it scratch at the walls and climb back through the window from which it entered before he could let out a scream and figure out what he had just witnessed — a bear crashing in and out of his garden-level bedroom.

 

Eleven-year-old Zach Landis was in his bedroom on June 26 when a black bear smashed through the window. He was uninjured. He is standing in the room with his mother, Alisa Landis, two days later. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News)

 

Follow the link for the whole story.

 

Two in two days: "Really odd"

‘Really odd’: 2 fatal maulings in 2 days by Alaska black bears

A sign alerts park users that the Bird Ridge trail is closed, Monday June 19, 2017. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News)

Patrick Cooper died Sunday as the 16-year-old came down Bird Ridge near Anchorage following a mountain race, the victim of an unusual fatal attack involving a black bear.

A day later, a Pogo Mine contract employee in the Interior was killed — also by a black bear.

Experts say fatal maulings by black bears in Alaska are rare.

Until the past few days, only six deaths had been linked to black bears in 130 years, according to a biologist compiling a report on Alaska bear attacks since 1880.

The sequence of events leading to Cooper's death is unknown beyond a text message he sent to a relative, saying he was being chased by a bear as he descended after finishing the 1.5-mile juniors division course of the Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb.

A state park ranger shot a black bear found near Cooper's body but the animal ran off.

Little information was available Monday about the attack on the Pogo contractor that left a second contract employee injured.

If black bears are found responsible for both deaths, it represents only the second time in recent history that black bears have killed someone in Alaska.

The last was Robert Weaver, a 64-year-old Fairbanks man who died following a black bear attack at his cabin near Delta Junction in 2013.

Black bears accounted for just 10 percent of bear attacks in Alaska dating back to 1880, according to reports compiled by two biologists working separately.

"The black bear — that's really odd," said Tom Smith, an associate professor at Brigham Young University who's studied bears since he worked as a biologist at Katmai National Park in 1992.

 

 

Click the link to read the whole article.

You'd Think Folks Would Learn, But ...

You remember that I mentioned a family of black bears that were marauding around the Government Hill neighborhood in Anchorage, not too long ago?

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They grew much more bold, having lost their minimal fear of humans. The Fish and Wildlife folks planned to shoot them, but impassioned pleas from the public and from Governor Bill Walker put an end to that. So the five bears were relocated to the Kenai Peninsula, well south of Anchorage.

Uh-huh.

Four of the five black bears relocated from the Government Hill neighborhood in Anchorage were shot and killed near a Hope campground after one of the bears climbed into a vehicle on Sunday. 

It's a shame, but it's also pretty much the expected outcome. Humans know (mostly) that we have to share Anchorage with the wild animals that were here long before we were ... but the animals are wild and don't always return the consideration.

All 5 Black Bears in Family Captured

ANCHORAGE - All five of the black bears which have been roaming the Government Hill neighborhood have been captured by state biologists, with plans to relocate them under way.



Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokesman Ken Marsh said the fourth and final bear cub was captured by biologists in an industrial zone near Government Hill at about 9 a.m. Thursday. Its capture follows that of two other cubs in the same area Wednesday, at about 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. that afternoon.

Thursday’s bear will be taken to the Alaska Zoo, where the others -- including the third cub captured Monday evening, and the sow caught Tuesday night – are already being held. Marsh said the zoo lodging was only temporary, and none of the bears will be available for public display.