At least twenty-two brown bears have been killed this year outside of hunting season, a new record for the Chilkat Valley.
“We’ve more than doubled what we ever had before,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) biologist Carl Koch said. “I looked back to 1998. Three times (non-hunt bear kills) hit ten, but it was never higher than ten.”
Non-hunt kills could include motor vehicle collisions in addition to bears shot illegally, or in defense of life or property. This year, all 22 confirmed non-hunt kills were shot, Koch said, and at least two of these were illegal kills, instances where the kill wasn’t necessitated by defense of life or property.
The department is currently investigating rumors of at least two other bear kills, which would bring the total to 24, Koch said. Ten were shot by law enforcement and the rest by members of the public.
In a normal year, the brown bear harvest guideline for Chilkat Valley hunting season is 16, Koch said. “Hunting season hasn’t started and we’ve already exceeded that.”
Koch said he’s requesting that hunters who feel they need to take a brown bear this year only harvest male bears. He said ADFG may need to make management changes depending on how this hunting season goes, and harvesting reproductive females will only increase the potential for management action.
Given the unprecedented number of dead bears this year, disposing of bodies in compliance with state law has presented its own logistical challenges.
“Anyone that kills a bear needs to think about, you’ve shot an animal that weighs several hundred pounds, what are you going to do with it?” Koch said.
Under state law, 5 AAC 92.410, a person may take game in defense of life or property if they have exhausted “all other practicable means” and the kill wasn’t necessitated by “improper disposal of garbage or a similar attractive nuisance.”
Game taken under this section of Alaska Administrative Code becomes state property and must be reported immediately. For brown bears, the skull and hide with claws attached must be removed from the carcass and turned over to the department.
Koch said there is variation across the state when it comes to how this section of code is interpreted and enforced.
If a person declines to use an electric fence to protect their chicken coop and they shoot a bear that breaks into the coop, one could argue that they didn’t use all practicable means to defend their property, Koch said.
Enforcement also varies when it comes to turning over pelts to ADFG. Although this is required by law, it doesn’t always happen.
The department has confirmed 22 dead bears, but Koch said to his knowledge, they have only collected seven or eight pelts and roughly 17 skulls.
Of the 12 bears shot by the public, eight were adults and four were cubs. Koch said he believes the department recovered most, if not all, of the pelts from adult bears shot by the public. However, the department hasn’t received any pelts from bears shot by law enforcement in Haines.
Koch said decisions related to these pelts have been left to state wildlife trooper Colin Nemec.
“The trooper can use some discretion. Typically, the hide and claws are supposed to be provided (to ADFG), but sometimes there’s extenuating circumstances because of public safety concerns and limited resources,” Koch said.
In an interview earlier this week, Nemec said all bears shot by law enforcement this year have been buried, and those shot by members of the public “disposed of in the manner that they see fit and as to not cause an attractant.”
By press time, Nemec hadn’t responded to a request for comment on the decision to bury bears shot by law enforcement along with their pelts.
Pelts collected by the department are cleaned and, depending on their condition, stored until the department can send them to Anchorage to sell at Fur Rondy, or used for educational purposes, Koch said, adding that not all pelts are of value to the department.
In the summer, bear coats are often thin and patchy. They don’t have much sale value until fall when the fur begins to thicken. Cub pelts and pelts damaged when bears are shot are also of little value.
Proceeds from bear pelts and other animal parts that become property of ADFG are deposited in the department’s fund.
This year, the average price for a bear pelt sold at Fur Rondy was $630, with pelt values ranging from $250 to $2,100. The total proceeds from all game parts sold at auction was $27,785, with most of the revenue generated by the sale of 23 brown bear hides and 70 sets of moose antlers.
Koch said the department has kept three of the bear pelts it’s collected in Haines this year. The others were disposed of due to lack of value.
Koch said lack of value may have factored into law enforcement’s decision to bury bears with pelts intact. It can be time consuming to skin a bear in a way that preserves the value of the hide, but Koch said he hopes the department will be able to recover the pelts of any non-hunt bears killed in the coming months.
Part of the reason the law specifies that the department collects the pelts, regardless of condition, is to remove the temptation of seeing a large bear with a nice pelt and taking it in the name of self-defense.
“The (defense of life or property) law is intended to protect someone from prosecution if their life was in danger. It’s not meant to be convenient… or provide someone with a trophy,” Koch said.
Koch said the bears shot by law enforcement are buried in an undisclosed location to prevent people from digging up the remains. He said he can confirm that the bears aren’t buried at the landfill.
As one might imagine, a big hole is necessary to bury a 250 to 400-pound brown bear, Koch said. He said the work is made faster by using heavy equipment like a backhoe.
ADFG has recovered most bear skulls, except for a few of the cub skulls, Koch said. He said it’s been difficult to keep track of all the parts as so many animals have been shot this year. Skulls collected by ADFG are used to gather data about the animal through the collection of hair and tissue samples.
Koch said there is no official brown bear population estimate for the Chilkat Valley. The closest the department has come is an approximation that assumes the region has a bear population density similar to that of Admiralty Island. This method puts the population at 400, but Koch said he thinks the Chilkat Valley bear population is smaller, as Haines is more developed than Admiralty Island.