An Anchorage grizzly bear in search of a chicken dinner/Facebook
Alaska’s governor and Legislature are messing with the state’s beloved Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD); pandemic COVID-19 infections are “down” to a seven-day moving average about double the infection rate of a year ago at this time; and the social media buzz in the suburbs of Alaska’s largest city is all about bears.
Bears, bears, bears!
Grizzlies that venture into your yard to hunt moose calves are hard to ignore no matter whether you feel for the poor, dead calves and their distraught mothers, or for your own safety.
Alaskans are lucky in that bears rarely, rarely do this. Most of them run in fright at the sight of a human or sneak away quietly at the scent of one. But there remains the need for caution for safety sake for those living in a community with a healthy population of grizzlies and an even healthier population of their smaller, less aggressive cousins the black bears.
There is a reason that many people heading out the door to hike around the Anchorage Hillside now habitually grab a can of bear-repelling pepper spray, because there is no telling what kind of encounter might take place.
“Bear Swatted our Honda Pilot, left claw marks,” one Annchorage Hillside resident posted on the Nextdoor page on Tuesday. The post was complete with a photo to illustrate the damage. The rest said this:
“A brown bear sow with cub approached our Honda Pilot from the alder bushes and took a swipe at it while stopped at the stop sign near Birch and Trappers Trail Rd. It left some claw marks….Time was around 11:30 pm. The bear pursued the car briefly when the driver drove off. So, please be advised, its a good idea to have bear protection on mid-Hillside when walking. This is unusual behavior for a brown bear. Yes, I did contact ADF&G and spoke with Sean Farley & David Battle; they are aware of the event. Be careful out there!”
ADF&G is the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that every June now spends a lot of time responding to bear calls.
It wasn’t always this way. Decades ago, bear that made themselves visible on the edge of the city didn’t often get much closer. But times changed. People became a lot more tolerant of bears no matter how some might fear them.
Fear season
This is the peak of the annual bear fear season.
With vegetation not fully leaved out as yet, bears are easier to spot than they will be later in the year when much of Alaska grows jungle thick, and then there is that moose-calf hunting that sometimes leaves the bears more attuned to trying to kill their next meal than avoid people.
Among “Today’s Top Posts” on Nextdoor on Wednesday was this:
“Brown bear chasing momma and baby moose this morning; (bear) has two cubs.”
“Brown bears” are what coastal grizzlies are commonly called in Alaska.
Though different in size and diet, brown and grizzly bears also share notable similarities. Sows are known to aggressively attack anyone or anything they believe poses a threat to their cubs. Both sexes are likely to do the same to defend a cache of food. All can easily do serious damage to a human whether that is their intent or not. And wherever they live, they love the taste of moose meat if they can get it.
Over on the “Anchorage Bear Tracker” Facebook page, there was this week considerable concern about a brown/grizzly on a moose kill near the South Anchorage Target store. That would be Target as in the big-box store of the Target Corporation, the eighth largest retailer in the U.S.
The state agency often removes moose carcasses from areas where they think the bear-attracting carrion could pose a threat to humans encounter a bear near it. The concern dates back to the the highest profile bear attack in Anchorage history, which happened about 15 miles east of the city center in July 1995 when 77-year-old Marcie Trent, her 45-year-old son Larry Waldron and grandson Art Abel, 14, stumbled upon a grizzly feasting on the carcass of a moose along the McHugh Creek Trail in Chugach State Park.
The grizzly attacked, killing both Trent and Waldron. Abel fled and survived.
“Trent won Fairbanks’ Equinox Marathon three times and remains its oldest champion at age 58. She also won the famous Pikes Peak Marathon at age 57 and was the first Alaskan woman over age 50 to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Marcie completed 59 marathons and 11 ultramarathons and logged more than 71,000 lifetime miles in her life. Trent was inducted into the USA Track & Field Masters Hall of Fame in 2001.”
Ever since the deaths of Trent and Waldron, Alaska’s largest city has had a love-fear relationship with its bruins. ADF&G, for its part, has policed the situation as best it can in a city where some want no bears killed ever and others want all bears kiled.
Welcome to life in the real north.
Location: Pioneer Ridge Trail
Type: Search and Rescue
Dispatch Text:
On June 15, 2021, at approximately 0129 hours, Alaska State Troopers in the Mat-Su Valley were notified that a lone hiker on Pioneer Ridge Trail was in need of assistance. An adult female hiker had contacted her husband asking for help after being charged by multiple bears and discharging bear spray. Shortly after requesting assistance, the hiker stopped responding to phone calls and text messages. Alaska State Troopers responded to the trailhead and conducted a hasty search of the first section of the trail with no results. The Rescue Coordination Center was contacted to coordinate an aerial search. Beginning this morning the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center deployed a rescue team that has flown the trail and immediate area multiple times throughout the day. In addition to the aerial search volunteers with the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group and MATSAR have been searching the area from the ground using K9s. Search efforts are ongoing.
Well, prayers for this young lady. Hope there is a happy ending.
Never been, but sounds like a lovely trail: “Here a ptarmigan may flit by you in a blur of feathers, squawking at your intrusion as it dives below the ridge. A squall (the product of the collision between the cold glacier air upriver and the warm sea air downriver) may quickly pass overhead. You may even see a BEAR on a (hopefully) distant ridge. If you’re very fortunate, you may even spot a wolf loping down one of the hollows below.”
On a different note, I rank bear spray up there with some of the greatest myths of all time: Covid and Climate Change/Global Warming. Same nuts push all 3.. Those pushing bear spray are NOT your friend.. They are on the bears team..Think about that next time you go only armed with a 6 SECOND can of ‘bear” spray to face MULTIPLE charging grizzlies..
Based on the story I just heard on KDLL, they’re thinking it was a brown bear and the wounds were sufficient that one of them was unable to walk – but still paddled to Upper Skilak campground. That’s badass. They sound like copers. Much respect to them for handling the situation so well and to the folks at Upper who helped them out.
Trying to learn more about the bear attack at Skilak yesterday but it looks like ADN has a paywall now so…we’ll all have to start contributing here instead.
The important thing is that they brought bear spray and a horn to use within the confines of their tent..
That’s funny. “Chuckling”