When Leigh Horner slipped out of her house on the outskirts of Fort Seward last week for a Mai Tai at the distillery she didn’t realize someone was watching her, waiting for a chance to steal some of her things.
But the ‘someone’ wasn’t a person – it was a grizzly bear, who Horner believes waited in the trees for her to leave and sauntered over to her glistening carrot patch.
“They only got the orange carrots, and he very carefully pulled them out of the ground,” said Horner. “The bear was very neat and tidy. I was impressed.”
Horner’s experience isn’t unique. After she posted about her loss on Facebook, a handful of other Haines residents posted about their experiences with bears in their carrot patches.
“Carrots are full of sugar — I’m sure they think it’s the greatest thing,” said Rick Sinnott, a retired Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist who dealt with urban bears in Anchorage for decades. He noted that bears pick out root vegetables in the wild, including Eskimo potatoes. And, he said they’re excellent visual learners as well, so trying one tasty orange carrot may have led to a preference for the orange color.
Sinnott said he hadn’t heard of bears seeking carrots around Southcentral Alaska, but Fish and Game’s Juneau area biologist Carl Koch said it’s a regular — if not common — occurrence.
“Bears getting into carrots is not at all unusual. It’s an edible plant just like edible plants in nature,” he said.
Still, residents say they believe one bear might have gotten a taste for carrots this year and may be responsible for several of the raids. Carole Tuynman said her family has grown carrots for decades. This year, for the first time, a bear cleared out her patch a day before she planned to harvest them.
“My first thought was one of the other gardeners must have come and harvested them all, because they were all gone,” she said. “It was like someone dug them out neatly and ate everything.”
As for the bear’s care in removing the carrots without disturbing the soil? Koch said despite their reputation as clumsy brutes, bears actually have dexterous paws.
“While they’re capable of busting in a garage, they can also eat berries off of devil’s club,” he said.
Koch said gardeners should consider putting up electric fences around their garden patches. The Haines Fish and Game office gives out loaner fences, and residents can apply for rebates of up to $500 if they buy new ones from Defenders of Wildlife. Horner said she’d borrowed a “critter getter,” a motion-sensitive box that flashes and screeches when an animal triggers it, within a few days of the bear’s looting of her garden.
Koch also noted that the Haines Borough had done an “excellent” job in reducing foods that attract bears after 2020, when around 50 bears were killed near Haines. The borough tightened restrictions, like requiring residents to secure chicken coops and animal food. It’s also started a program to match people with cherry trees on their property with people willing to pick those cherries.
“2020 was intolerable for agencies and residents alike, and Haines really stepped it up. Their ordinance is probably one of the best in the state,” said Koch.
This year, the local Fish and Game office reported just 37 calls about bears, a fraction of the number in 2020. One bear was killed by a resident who claimed defense of life and property, and the bear’s cub was later killed by a Fish and Game biologist.
For her part, Horner takes responsibility for not securing her fence or other bear deterrents earlier. She said she knows she lives in the bears’ world.
“It’s hysterical really,” said Horner “It was devastating, but I accept I have to share a world with bears…I have opposable thumbs and I need to be responsible. I am more evolved.”