A brown bear cub that was fed dog food for about a week was captured by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
State wildlife biologists Neal Bearten and Ryan Scott darted and hauled off the 60-pound bear from near a Mud Bay Road home July 13.
“The bear appeared to come to the sound of dog food being powered in the bowl. He was being fed and on a schedule. He knew the cues and came right up. It didn’t seem to bother him at all that we were there,” Scott said.
The state is planning to place the cub in a Minnesota zoo, but that’s not for sure, Scott said. The state regularly puts down such animals, he said. “There’s a lot of bear cubs right now, and typically there isn’t a lot of demand for bear cubs.”
Kroschel Films Wildlife Park at 27 Mile Haines Highway expressed interest int he bear but to date has not met state requirements for keeping it, Scott said.
Biologists issued a warning ticket to the family that fed the bear but will more aggressively prosecute such feeding in the future, Scott said.
State law prohibits feeding bears as well as attracting them, by careless handling of garbage and other food sources.
In the mid-1990s, the state prosecuted a City of Haines policeman who killed a bear cub that got into unsecured garbage in his backyard.
Fish and Game monitored the bear’s activity along Mud Bay road for the past month. The bear is apparently an orphan and roamed porches and yards in the vicinity of 6 Mile. Staying around residences indicates it was likely being fed or getting into human food sources for weeks, Scott said. “It’s not in a bear’ s nature to want to hang out with people.”
A recent increase in sightings led Fish and Game to take action but wildlife biologists were unaware the bear was being fed until arriving here. The bear was relatively healthy and may have been surviving on mussels and other forage before discovering human food, Scott said.
“He wasn’t aggressive or creating problems at this point, but he was only going to get bigger and more aggressive and start creating issues for people,” Scott said. “Bears learn quickly to associate people with food.”
Scott had a difficult time explaining how the family justified feeding the animal.
“An orphaned baby animal tugs on everybody’s heartstrings. I think they believe they were helping out, but unfortunately it leads to bigger problems.”
Each year, Fish and Game deals with orphan bears between mid-May and early July, Scott said. As difficult as it might seem, residents should treat baby bears the same was they would adult ones, shooing them away and keeping them out of food sources, he said.
While in Haines, biologists also met with officials at Chilkoot Caviar. A juvenile bear as well as a large sow and cub have gotten into the garbage and fish recently near the Lutak plant.