Bears emerging from their winter dens in Interior Alaska
Originally published Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 9:27 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 10:59 a.m.
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Stumble It!Bears are beginning to stir in the Interior.
State wildlife biologist Tom Seaton with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game spotted a grizzly bear from the air Friday while doing snow-depth surveys in the Yukon Flats north of Fairbanks.
“He was a really nice, old male,” Seaton said. “He was digging in the mud in a dried up lake. I don’t know what he was digging up.”
Members of the road-clearing crew in Denali National Park and Preserve, meanwhile, spotted their first grizzly of the season on April 5 on Teklanika Flats at about Mile 27 of the 92-mile park road, according to Brad Ebel, west district road supervisor.
Older male grizzlies are the first bears to emerge from hibernation in Alaska, Seaton said.
“Typically, old males come out first and females with young come out last,” he said. “That pretty much holds true for both species — grizzlies and black bears.”
Grizzly bears also tend to come out of their dens before black bears, Seaton said. Depending on the weather, grizzlies begin emerging from their dens in early to mid-April.
“In general, I think you can safely say there are bears out now,” Seaton said. “If you spent some time in the foothills of the Alaska Range, you’d find some (grizzlies) out there right now.”
Black bears, on the other hand, are probably still sleeping.
“I think in general it would be hard to find a black bear right now,” Seaton said. “You can usually count on seeing the first black bears in early May.”
The Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks has not received any calls about bears in the Fairbanks North Star Borough yet, but state wildlife officials did investigate the reported sighting of a bear on Nordale Road that was aired on a local radio station last week. That report turned out to be false, said Jackie Kephart, who works at the front desk of the department’s College Road office.
“We went out there and looked around and couldn’t find any bear tracks where they said they were,” Kephart said. Even with the cooler temperatures and fresh snow, Seaton said now is still a good time to put bird feeders away and clean up any garbage that could provide incentive for a hungry bear to visit.
“This would be a great time to look around your yard and make sure there’s not an attractant for a bear around.”
Community Discussion
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I have pictures of very big bear prints taken in our yard in March this year here in Fairbanks on Suncrest drive. Will forward them if you tell us how.WM
I saw bear scat near the College Rd area of Creamers Field 2 years ago. It was a little scary!
It's only scary if there's still steam coming off it.
We will dispatch the elders and set up a 3 mile perimeter around town. All bears will be shot on sight. (sarcasm) I did like the advice at the end of the article to clean up around your house so you don't attract bears. Does that include lynx carcasses?
Yea. Kill em all. Dirty, vile, smelly omnivors.
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