Grizzly bear in Chatanika area hasn't settled in for its long winter's nap
Published Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS -- A grizzly bear is still reportedly roaming around the Chatanika area about 30 miles north of Fairbanks.
Ron Franklin, owner of the Chatanika Lodge at Mile 28.5 of the Steese Highway, said he saw the bear on a hill behind the lodge late last week and fresh tracks were spotted on Tuesday in a driveway at around Mile 52.
"It was down here about four days ago and now it's up there," Franklin said on Tuesday by phone from the lodge. "It's a big grizzly."
So far, the bear hasn't caused any problems or gotten into any food, Franklin said, but having a large grizzly roaming around at this time of the year is a little unsettling.
"If they're out this late there's only one reason -- they're hungry," Franklin said.
Several locals have seen the bear or its tracks in the past week, he said.
"It's just roaming around," Franklin said
Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms said the agency did not have a report about the bear on its nuisance log but she wasn't surprised by the report. While most bears have already headed to their dens for the winter to hibernate, some large, male grizzlies may still be out and about. Grizzly boars are the last bears to den up, she said.
"It's not unheard" for a bear to be out this late, Harms said. "I did hear a report of somebody who was flying and they saw a (grizzly) bear in the Fortymile on Saturday."
Harms suspects Franklin may be right in assuming the bear hasn't denned up yet because it's hungry.
"Most bears that go to bed are well nourished; maybe this one needs more food," Harms said. "(Large males) tend to wear off a lot of fat during the breeding season."
A family of grizzly bears -- a sow with two cubs -- was shot and killed by a homeowner in Salcha on Oct. 16 after the bears broke into a garage and raided a freezer. The bears returned a second time and the sow charged the homeowner as he was unloading a fuel tank, prompting him to shoot it and the two cubs.
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I'm quite sure some yahoo with his gun is going to blast this grizzly and label it DLP no matter how much he may have to stretch the circumstances. Under Palin that is the answer to any wildlife management situation.....kill. And her thinking tends to trickle down, unfortunately.
Ron, Glad you didnt have any trouble with this bear. I hope you and Shirley are doing well, and we will be up to see you soon.
John Greene
omfg dobie if you dont like the alaskan life style where people have guns then leave. i also hope one day you run across a bear and you dont have a gun and he decides to come after you and you remember all this stuff your writing bout others and wish one of them was around to help you now
Well, polaris...sorry to break it to you but a gun isn't always the answer even though I have owned many in my life. I've also watched a black bear trot through my yard, have encountered grizzlies while hiking, and all this accomplished without having to shoot the first thing that moves. After almost 40 years up here one thing I've noticed is that the mentality, if one can call it that, of "shoot first, ask questions later" is alive and healthy....if such a perverted perspective can be considered "healthy." I understand a good deal of your comment is filled with the hopeful innuendo that I am someone new to Alaska or that I have no experience with firearms, hunting, or gadding about in the wilds. The fact of the matter is you couldn't be further from the truth.
What's sad for Alaska's wildlife is your..."thinking"...is all too common in some areas and is a holdover from when men seemed to feel their manhood was determined by how many mounted heads were on their livingroom walls or how many skins adorned their furniture. Most folks hope that sort of attitude went out with the 1890's but I guess, as you have demonstrated, it still exists in sad, little pockets.
BTW, you want to try an experience with a bear? Try making your way through 8-foot high buckbrush in Isabel Pass when you know there is a grizzly very, very close by. Somehow I made it without having to shoot the animal. Amazing, isn't it?
"what to do about bears" has been a subject of 50 years of conversations for me. Just so the readers know where I'm coming from:
born in New York City, first visited Alaska BEFORE Sarah Palin to fly in with Don Sheldon and climb in the Kichatnas before any human had set foor there, load my own, knocked on doors in Pennsylvania for Obama. Live on a road that was dirt until 3 years ago and hunt in my backyard 70 miles north of NYC. Just visited my son's family this summer and drove the Dalton north of the Yukon. Have slept on bear trails in the Tombstone mountains of the Yukon because the brush was too thick to find a spot anywheres else. Watched a mile and a half outside of Anchorage in 1978 as a mother and daughter hiked into thick brush on a moutainside on a trail towards which, from the other side, a huge grizzly was approaching. From a half mile away we yelled futiley - 10 minutes later the women emerged - never saw the grizzly they later said when we met up on the ridge later.
Having experienced small deer run for over 75 yards after being hit IN THE HEART with my 7mm Remington Magnum - I know that one can NOT count on stopping a grizzly intent on doing harm to you with anything - even a bazooka. And even though 99% of the time one can finesse a bear encounter it would be nice to have a fail safe method of protection. In 1978, after canoeing with my friend Dr Dean Rau, then of Anchorage, down the raging flooded Susitna, we portaged up and out to Stephan Lake to visit a cabin from which we were to radio to be picked up by float plane. As we waited I lashed the outlet with salmon flies - big reds were running. A huge sow wallowed up behind me to within 15 feet and then turned in disgust when she saw I was hogging her prime fishing spot. Later in the cabin of the trapper, originally from Brooklyn, NY, we were illustrated THE only way to deal with bears. Over his door way on two nails was a broken open 18" long double barreled shot gun. Because there is no action the 18" legal barrel length provides a short enough weapon to swing into action at close quarters in an emergency situation. Over the gun mounted on two other nails were two 3" magnum double-O buck shells.
The idea is to yell, scream, posture however to drive the bear away. If it keeps coming one must shoot the bear in the face - to de-sensitize it - remove any method by which it could pursue you- take out the eyes and the nose - and run evasively. Horrible and cruel, but sure beats being mauled. If a bear keeps coming that close even as you yell and try to audibly deter it, you are in trouble! It is a purely defensive method- one would never try to hunt a bear in this way. Certainly it is fraught with close encounter hazards and would be a last resort BUT a last resort that gives one the best chance of surviving a bear attack.
Maybe someone will just go out and shoot it because it IS still Grizzly season.
FangSuhl - Your story brings back memories when I came to Fairbanks nearly 30 years ago. I went down to Guns Down Under looking for Bear protection. When I asked the clerk how the 44 mag pistol I was looking at would work, he told me there was one small adjustment needed. He suggested I saw off the front sight. When I asked why, he told me that way when the bear takes it away from me and sticks it up my behind it won't hurt as bad!
After near 30 years of fishing, hunting, or just hiking and camping in Alaska, I have only once ran into a bear that charged me. Nearly all made tracks to get away from me. The one time I had a bear come into camp and decided stay aroung, all it took was jacking in a round in my 12 gage and shooting over its head to pursued it to move along.
By the way, I do still carry that 44 with me when hiking in the woods. Luckily I haven't yet run into that bear the Guns Down Under clerk told me about.
dobie or is it spelled doobie...hmmmmm love my 44 in bear country, when you need it as a sow charges, a 44 is priceless........
Lets pick this guy up and transfer him to washington D. C.
regards,
Glenn
Dobie, I hope some day you and I come face to face out "on the trail."
I'm glad I'm not the only one with a case of insomnia, due to daylight savings time. Just becareful what or whom you shoot it may just be me in my pjs and slippers.
jbrando- i read the whole file off the 44's front site saying in the alaska magazine some 10-15 years back. i take you must have created that whole story about guns down under and the woods walking must have been along your lawn adjacent to the noise slough.
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