A black bear cub seen wandering Shoemaker Loop off Zimovia Highway at 5.5 Mile last week was euthanized in Petersburg on April 24, a day after a state wildlife trooper and U.S. Forest Service officer captured it following several sightings by residents who live along the roadway.
Trooper Chadd Yoder with Alaska Wildlife Troopers got a call from Wrangell police about people seeing a bear cub for days without its mother.
“It was apparent the bear was separated,” he said April 25. “What happened to mom, we don’t know.”
Jimmy Nelson, a Forest Service law enforcement officer, and Yoder found the cub in a tree. “It was pretty easy to catch,” Yoder said.
They put it in a dog carrier, and discussed possibilities of where it might go, possibly to the Fortress of the Bear sanctuary in Sitka, but they had heard it was at capacity.
“It spent the night at my house, and went over to Petersburg on Sunday (April 24),” Yoder said, recalling the cub sat next to him on the boat.
Yoder said he was aware the cub might be euthanized if placement at a zoo or sanctuary wasn’t likely.
“It’s a difficult situation because these small animals can’t be domesticated,” he said. And they don’t stay small forever.
Best-case scenario would have been reuniting it with its mom, but without the sow, it would have faced a slow death on its own, Yoder said.
Sgt. Cody Litster, an Alaska Wildlife Trooper in Petersburg, said they conferred with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to figure out the best thing to do.
“To our knowledge, there weren’t any placements at the time, and unfortunately the bear cub was euthanized,” Litster said April 25.
A lot of things go into the decision, he said, including the size and age of the animal, and the stress level of the animal to get to the location where it could be housed.
“From my department’s side, cubs of this age aren’t found abandoned at this time of year,” Litster said. “It’s a relatively unique circumstance. At some level, somewhere, there was a sow bear that was killed one way or the other. We’re concerned whether that was a natural death or a poaching.”
If anyone has information of how this cub was abandoned or left by its mom, Litster asks they contact either Yoder at 907-874-3215 or Litster at 907-772-3983. Alaska Wildlife Troopers have a toll-free number for Fish and Wildlife Safeguard, a service that can be called anonymously: 1-800-478-3377.
Another tool the department has which is fairly new, Litster said, is an online app called AK Tips, which can be downloaded in your phone’s app store for free by searching Aktips. Information can be sent anonymously through the app, as well.
Curator Claire Turner at Fortress of the Bear, a refuge in Sitka, said she didn’t receive a call about a bear cub in Wrangell but that was likely because they are listed at maximum capacity.
“We are currently maxed out with our eight permanent residents, five brown and three black bears,” Turner said Friday.
“If there was a possibility for a temporary hold, we would have made ourselves available, but we were not contacted, and it would be unlikely we would have been contacted unless there was a permanent placement,” she said.
It’s always really tough to hear of a bear cub having to be killed, but it’s important to remember that from troopers to Fish and Game officials, no one wants to euthanize a bear, she said.
Prevention is the key, being as mindful as possible to keep bears out of human populated areas, and “reduce the number of orphans we see,” she said.
That translates to securing trash, as it’s bear cub season.
Yoder said being aware of trash disposal day, and not putting scraps out days before is important. Freeze them, if you can.
“That’s our responsibility, living in a rural community to coexist and not have a problem,” he said.
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