David Andrews and two friends were on the 17th hole of the Moose Run Golf Course on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Sunday evening when two black bear cubs dashed across the grass, trailed by an adult bear — likely a sow, likely their mother.
The cubs batted at a flagpole on the Creek Course as the adult bear continued to saunter by. Eventually, the cubs chased after it. Along the way, one of them snagged a golf ball that belonged to Andrews, before heading off the course and into the trees.
Andrews said he's known for losing golf balls, often after launching them into the woods. Remarkably, he said, he had yet to misplace a ball Sunday, until the bears stopped by around 6 p.m.
"That was a first," Andrews said.
It's not uncommon for golfers to come across bears at the Arctic Valley course. In June, Trevor Stefan recorded a video of three black bear cubs wrestling and pouncing on a flagpole.
[Watch black bear cubs frolic at an Anchorage golf course]
Earlier Sunday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shot and killed a particularly bold black bear at the golf course, according to Ken Marsh, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokesman.
The department had received complaints about a young black bear approaching people on the course before, Marsh said. Then on Sunday, a young bear ran at a golfer. The golfer left the area and left behind his bag, which had a candy bar or energy bar in it, Marsh said. The bear tore into the bag, searching for food.
A Fish and Game employee used bear spray on the animal four or five times. He fired a rubber bullet at it, Marsh said. The bear wasn't fazed.
"It was so keyed into getting that food that it wasn't going anywhere," Marsh said.
Fish and Game killed the bear. It's believed the bear had become accustomed to human food and become a public safety concern, Marsh said. He said he had gotten tips earlier in the summer about people leaving out bread up the road from the golf course, waiting for bears to show up so they could take photographs.
"When we start feeding animals like this, that's when you start getting this behavior," Marsh said.
Fish and Game tracks the number of bears killed by police, park rangers, troopers and wildlife biologists, as well as the bears killed by people who said they were defending their lives or their property.
So far this year, 37 bears have been killed in the Municipality of Anchorage — 30 by authorities and seven by civilians. Of that total, 26 were black bears and 11 were brown bears.
That's more than last year, when that total reached 34 by November — nearly four times the number in 2016 and among the highest totals ever recorded in the municipality.