State biologists last week euthanized an orphaned Lutak brown bear cub they said had run out of options for survival.
“It was a matter of watching this animal suffer and starve to death, which was what was going to happen. The only humane choice we were left with was euthanization,” said Anthony Crupi, assistant area wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game. “This is not what anybody wanted.”
The state already has two brown bear cubs in temporary holding facilities that may have to be euthanized for lack of a placement request from a zoo or other institution. “There’s no guarantee they’re going to make it.”
Steve Kroschel’s wildlife park has permits only for the two bears it has, he said.
The state had watched the bear for five days, hoping it would reunite with its mother, Crupi said. “It was a difficult decision for managers to make, but it was time to make a decision after trying everything else first.”
Crupi said the cub was emaciated when biologists caught up with it May 25 at the former Army tank farm site. Fish and Game got several calls about the bear, which tours off cruise ships were stopping to watch. “It was definitely a spectacle and it started heading towards town,” Crupi said.
On the day biologists caught up with it, they directed state park ranger Preston Kroes to turn it around at the tank farm, he said.
Crupi said the only other option biologists had was to relocate the bear to a different location, an alternative they characterized as a less humane death than euthanization.
He said the state still doesn’t know what happened to the sow’s mother. He said it may have died in the den, been hit by a car or taken by hunters. Brown bear hunters haven’t turned in any females yet, and the state might look for signs of lactation in ones that were, he said.
Mature Chilkoot bears typically give birth to two cubs at a time, but younger and older sows average one cub at a time, Crupi said.
Bears learn hunting and foraging behaviors from their mothers. Two, first-year cubs orphaned by the unsolved shooting of a brown bear at 19 Mile in November were left in the wild. Tracks suggested the bears may have been eating fish on their own, Crupi said.