Judge Allows State to Kill Southwest Alaska Bears in Bid to Protect Caribou This Spring
The ruling lets state crews keep removing bears from helicopter patrols as officials seek to boost calf survival in a herd that has been closed to hunting since 2021.
- On Wednesday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman ruled that Alaska wildlife agents can resume shooting bears from helicopters to help recover the Mulchatna caribou herd in Southwest Alaska.
- State officials initiated the program because the Mulchatna caribou herd, which once provided about 4,770 caribou annually for Alaska Native subsistence hunters, dropped to around 16,280 animals last year from a peak of around 190,000.
- Fish and Game has killed 191 bears in three seasons, almost all brown bears, while the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity continue challenging the program's legality through ongoing litigation.
- Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said "we're happy that science prevails," and crews will begin operations soon as the Mulchatna herd is expected to start calving.
49 Articles
49 Articles
After legal challenge, Alaska judge approves state's revised bear cull in Southwest Alaska
Two subadult brown bears walk along a beach in Katmai National Park and Preserve in June 2018. (R. Taylor/National Park Service) An Alaska Superior Court judge in Anchorage has given the state of Alaska permission to shoot bears in Southwest Alaska as part of a plan to boost a local caribou herd. In a 22-page order, Judge Adolf Zeman said a cull planned for this month may take place while attorneys proceed with arguments about the constitutional…
Wildlife managers in Alaska are once again allowed to shoot black and brown bears, including from helicopters, to protect a severely diminished caribou herd. A judge in the American state ruled this. Alaska wants to help restore the so-called Mulchatna caribou herd in the southwest of the state. For years, that herd was an important food source for dozens of indigenous communities in the area, but the population of the North American reindeer de…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 66% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
