A black bear was fatally shot by federal officials after attempting to break into an occupied tent near Portage campgrounds in Alaska, following a recent similar incident that injured a woman.
While Northwest Arctic residents encounter bears year-round, such sightings are not common in Kotzebue this time of year, Cantine said. Charlie Henry Jr., an Elder from Kotzebue, agreed: “That is so strange — brown bear in the middle part of the coldest months.”
Earlier on Monday, Maniilaq Association notified Kotzebue residents about the musk ox in a Facebook post, saying that the animal was “roaming around the Kotzebue area, last sighted near ‘old’ teacher housing on the lagoon.” Health officials asked residents to not approach or agitate the animal and to keep their dogs under control.
The Western Arctic Caribou Herd has been declining for years, and the migration patterns of the animals have been changing. In several locations in Northwest Alaska, caribou have been arriving later and later in the season. Friday last week, people in Kotzebue finally started seeing caribou — hundreds of them ― crossing the Kotzebue Sound north of town, coming from the Noatak riverside. Ice conditions are one of the reasons for the caribou’s late migration, said Thomas Baker, chair of the Northwest Arctic Subsistence Regional Advisory Council.
The man suffered four scratches to the top of his head and near his right ear, and declined medical assistance.
A Houston man was injured by a moose near his home, an unusual event linked to increased moose aggression due to harsh winter conditions.
With few fish and limited berries, bear encounters are high in Alaska's capital city this year.
Alaska transportation officials believe there’s a low risk that anyone could be harmed in an outburst, but they say they’re acting swiftly to prevent another road closure.
Three young dogs were euthanized this week after testing positive for parvovirus, an Anchorage Animal Care and Control official said.
The 61-year-old man was flown to an Anchorage hospital for treatment of his injuries, troopers said.
The man was injured on his face and hands. Two members in the skiers party assisted with his injuries and communicate for help in 15 degree temperatures with sunset approaching. It was not immediately clear what triggered the mauling about 10 miles northwest of Haines.
A total of 94 brown bears, five black bears and five wolves were killed in the program that began May 10 and ended June 4, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said this week. That’s more than four times the number biologists predicted would be taken. State biologists also say disease and changing food supplies might be a bigger factor overall.
Lenny didn’t have a wound on him but hasn’t been the same since, his owner says.
Biologists struggle to single out a leading cause of the caribou population’s decline. Increased wolf predation, changed migration patterns and climate warming affecting food sources can all influence the herd. “It’s going to be another rough winter again this year without caribou,” Selawik resident Norma Ballot said.
Patrick Jones, wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, said he has heard of dogs killing moose, caribou and a days-old musk ox calf, but nothing like this attack.
“The fact that an otter attacked a person was certainly surprising,” said a wildlife biologist with Fish and Game, who added that it’s hard to know what the motivation behind the otter’s “unusual behavior” was.
The bear tunneled under the zoo’s perimeter fence and broke through the cedar split rail fence around the alpaca enclosure before killing Caesar, according to the zoo’s executive director, Pat Lampi. Another alpaca -- Fuzzy Charlie -- was found unhurt though wide-eyed and skittish.
Black bears have taken over a Juneau arboretum, shut down a fish-cleaning facility in Cordova and added to an unusually high year of bear kills in Anchorage, prompting one wildlife authority to call this summer the "craziest" year of bear encounters he's seen.
A wildlife biologist believes a lynx that recently approached a young girl may have been a juvenile. The girl’s father said he’s now on higher alert after the encounter.
A Fish and Game biologist urges people to give the animals space.
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