courtesy of The Anchorage Daily News
by Mike Campbell
A controversial bear-snaring program designed to boost the moose population in an area on the other side of Cook Inlet from Anchorage was expanded Friday to include brown bears.
The Alaska Board of Game approved the move in a 900-square-mile area of Game Management Unit 16B near Tyonek and Beluga with a 4-3 vote.
“We know that brown bears are taking large numbers of calves,” Alaska regional management supervisor Lem Butler said in a written statement Friday. “Research last summer indicates 47 percent of the calves that die are killed by brown bears. Black bears killed 21 percent and the remainder died from a variety of causes including drowning and unknown predators.”
The board previously authorized the snaring and baiting of a population estimated at 3,000 black bears, and Fish and Game described the method as “an extremely effective method of take.”
Now brown bears will be subject to the same baiting and foot-snaring technique.
Critics decry the methods. Bears are lured in with buckets of raw meat, and their paws are snared when they reach inside. Sometimes bears chew off a foot to escape.
Teklanika Nature Photography 