Wildlife

Denali Park rangers killed a young problem bear when they learned it was injured

Denali National Park rangers have killed a problem brown bear apparently conditioned to human food, but the decision was based on the bear's health and not just its behavior, officials said.

The rangers euthanized the bear in the park's Savage River area Wednesday morning. The bear's aggressive run-ins with visitors prompted recent closures around the river and other areas, officials said.

Park management last killed a bear conditioned to food in 1980, the release says.

Wildlife staff initially planned to collar and condition the bear to stop its dangerous tendencies of charging visitors and seeking out human food. Despite previous issues, the bear had not been spotted for two weeks; officials said a reasonable course of action would be keeping and eye on and working to change the bear's behavior, what they referred to as a "hard release."

That means biologists would have shot the bear with beanbag ammunition upon release in an attempt to teach the bothersome beast that approaching humans was a bad idea, said park spokesperson Kathleen Kelly. They threw out the idea as the rounds would have further injured the bear.

Park officials decided to "destroy the bear" based on its physical condition, the release says. Before being captured, the bear had broke its left front leg and nose. The leg became infected, officials said.

Park officials are unsure how the bear was injured, Kelly said.

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"The bear was in terrible physical condition and had a deformity," an extra upper-left canine tooth, said Dave Schirokauer, the park's resources and science team leader.

The bear was also severely underweight.

"A typical healthy 3-year-old male grizzly should weigh about 200 to 250 pounds, whereas this bear weighed only 130 pounds," the release says. The lack of girth around the neck of the bear prevented staff from properly fitting it with a collar, and officials said they decided it was unlikely the collar would have stayed on for long.

National Park Service employees were first alerted to the bear's behavior early in the week of June 20. It was reported a small grizzly charged vehicles near the Primrose Ridge area and chased visitors near Savage River along the Denali Park Road.

[Read more: Aggressive Denali bears injure 1, prompt trail and parking lot closures]

On June 22, the bear approached and charged several hikers on the Savage Alpine Trail. One of the hikers threw a daypack, hoping to distract it, and the bear got its paws on human food, park officials said.

The area was closed and the bear was shot with beanbags. The trail was reopened July 1, as the bear had not been spotted for five days, and it appeared biologists had successfully conditioned the bear to stay away.

Issues persisted, however.

"The area was closed again that day when the bear bit and scratched a hiker on the Savage Alpine Trail. Two days later, the bear was observed in the Savage River Campground where wildlife staff hit it with bean bags. The bear ran from the area. Later that day it was discovered that the bear had damaged two tents in Savage River Campground and the campground was closed to tent camping," the release says.

Several soft openings were planned for the closed areas starting July 18 but were delayed when a bear was spotted. It took until Tuesday night to identify the problem bear, locate it and put it down, the release says.

The decision to kill the bear wasn't made lightly, officials said.

"We are all emotionally impacted and physically and emotionally drained by this series of events," said Schirokauer. "Denali wildlife staff and rangers … pride themselves on managing the park in a manner that is least impactful to wildlife."

"We take the loss of the bear personally. We are also not accustomed to it; it's been 36 years since the park has killed a food-conditioned bear," he added.

Biologists initially chose to try and condition the bear due in part to its age. The subadult bear was experiencing the first year away from its mother, said Kelly. The hope was they "could teach it a lesson," she said.

"It was like a teenager pushing its boundaries," she said.

[Read More: Do wild animals that attack people always need to die?]

The Park Service said it knows of at least seven other bears currently in the Mt. Healy, Savage River and Primrose Ridge areas. Officials say visitors should continue to exercise caution.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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