By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka school teacher Joe Montagna was watching the final episode of the medieval fantasy show “Game of Thrones” Tuesday when he heard a noise in his backyard. The moment startled him, he said – it came during a pivotal scene in the show’s finale.
“Jon (Snow) had just killed Khaleesi (Daenerys, the dragon queen) and we heard the crack in the backyard. I was waiting for a dragon out there, but it was a wingless dragon called a bear,” Montagna told the Sentinel.
The furry intruder alarmed Montagna’s dogs as well, he said.
“We heard a crack and a thud and our dogs started barking like crazy,” Montagna said.
He didn’t step outside to investigate, but caught a glimpse of a large bear crossing Merrill Street and heading for the woods. “It was big – I was surprised how big this guy was.”
On further investigation, he found the source of the cracking sound. “We got about three or four feet of the top half of the wooden fence gone,” he said.
YOGI? – A brown bear is seen walking down Pherson Street in a cell phone video posted to the Sitka Bear Report Facebook page by Celia Dumag. Multiple bear sightings in nearly every part of town, including urban areas, have been the norm in recent weeks. Some of the emboldened bears, which have been caught multiple times on video and been confronted by people, have been given colorful names by police and residents. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Montagna notified law enforcement, he said, though they were already on the case – that one and lots of others. There have been dozens of calls lately, leading to trail closures, property damage, and posts on social media.
Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Biologist Steve Bethune was on bear patrol with local law enforcement officers through Tuesday night. Bethune said Sitkans need to be more careful with their garbage cans.
“The message is always the same, it comes down to garbage. You’ve got to handle your garbage responsibly. The bear will not hang around your place if there are no attractants,” Bethune said.
He pointed out that Sitkans are told not to leave trash outside.
“It’s a regulation, a city ordinance, not to put your trash out in your can until the morning of trash pickup,” he said.
The biologist added that his goal Tuesday night was to haze the bear so that it no longer interacts with people.
“The main goal is hazing at this point, trying to give the bear a negative consequence for being around an urban environment. At some point if there is a perceived public safety issue we would try to euthanize the bear,” he said
“At some point, it becomes a public safety issue if a bear decides to make a garbage can its cache and defend it. Or a situation if people are between a sow and cubs. And even if we decide to euthanize bears that doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to happen. It’s difficult to find bears in places where we can do that,” he said.
Bethune stressed the need for safety when using a firearm in or near town. His preferred choice would be a rifle chambered in .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. The .375 H&H is an iconic safari hunting cartridge that can fire a 300 grain projectile at up to 2,500 feet per second, according to the Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading. By comparison, the .30-30 Winchester, a popular deer hunting cartridge, can fire a 150 grain bullet at up to 2,300 feet per second, Hornady says.
Bethune said that if a firearm was to be used, it would be with caution.
“We’re not going to put the public in jeopardy with gunfire,” he said.
He noted that bear activity tends to decline between October and November, but if food remains available, the bears may remain active.
“Those times (when bears enter hibernation) can be extended. If there is a good food source, the bears will stay out until it’s exhausted,” he said.
All told, Bethune said, five bears have been sighted in and around town.
“The large male is hanging out around Lake Street area and those neighborhoods back there. The smaller bear has been around the Russian Cemetery, and the sow and (two) cubs have been in the Indian River area,” he said.
Bethune said today there were no major developments in the bear situation through Wednesday.
Sitka Police received bear-related calls in the area at 8:59 and 9:36 p.m. and nearby on Pherson Street at 8:20 p.m. 10:03 p.m., Tuesday.
Throughout Wednesday night, the department received eight bear calls from Merrill Street again to Wolff Drive and Highland Street.
The larger four-legged intruder has even received a nickname from the Police Department. They call him “The Terrorist,” Sgt. Lance Ewers told the Sentinel.
Ewers stressed the need for vigilance and the secure storage of garbage.
“You have to take care of your garbage… A fed bear is a dead bear, and we don’t want to have to euthanize bears,” Ewers said.
He noted that a decision on killing a bear would fall to Fish and Game, not local law enforcement.
The sergeant said the Terrorist has also broken into chicken coops. Ewers strongly recommended that people with chickens install electric fences to protect from bear attacks. When the Terrorist broke down Montagna’s fence, the bear may have believed it was breaking into a chicken coop, he said.
Ewers echoed Bethune’s concern for using a firearm in town.
“It is totally legal to defend your life and property. It always must – if you were to use lethal force on a bear – be done with a absolute certainty on backdrops,” Ewers said. Bullets can travel cleanly through a target, even one as large as a bear.
On Tuesday night, officers hazed the Terrorist, a seven- to eight-foot Goliath of a bear.
“It was a really super bizarre night. (Tuesday) night, we got some less-lethal munitions on a bear. We tased a bear,” he said.
But the bear withstood a hail of munitions from a 40mm projectile launcher and a jolt from a police taser, Ewers said. After being hit by 50,000 volts, Ewers said, the bear ran off.
But that was not the massive animal’s final public appearance of the night.
Another police officer and Bethune were in a patrol car on Arrowhead Street looking for the bear.
“The officer was waiting to see if the bear would come out of the woods, and the bear biologist (Bethune) was in the passenger seat of the officer’s vehicle. And their windows were down and (the officer’s) arm was out the window and that bear brushed by – they couldn’t even hear the bear come down the road – that bear brushed up against the officer and walked right by them,” Ewers said.
Bethune recalled the moment.
“We were sitting in location with our lights off and apparently the officer felt something brush his arm and then the bear was right in front of the patrol car,” Bethune said.
As silently as it had approached, the bear vanished into the forest, Ewers said.
Erika Knox saw the bear on DeGroff Street immediately before the ursuline intruder broke down Montagna’s fence.
“We heard a big thud,” Knox said. “I guess there’s been a problem bear on Merrill Street… I think this is the same bear but we have never had a bear problem on DeGroff Street in the 17 years I’ve lived there. But we had a bear topple over our trash can.”
She said the bear ran off when confronted, around 9 p.m.
“I went out onto the porch and there it was on the driveway with a trash bag. I yelled and clapped my hands and it ran off,” she recalled.
Like Montagna, Knox commented on the size of this particular brown bear.
“It was big, I was surprised how big this guy was,” she said of the Terrorist.
Local wildlife has been active in other parts of town as well. Trails at Sitka National Historical Park are closed, day and night, until further notice due to bear activity in the park.
“We have a lot of activity still around the areas where people are frequenting very often, like the Russian Memorial Trail loop. They just like popping out of the bushes… With the lack of fish now, and it’s not time for them to go to sleep yet, they’re kind of waiting it out and looking for other things,” Lead Interpretation and Education Ranger Cinnamon Dockham told the Sentinel.
She said two boars, as well as a sow with a pair of cubs, have made appearances in the park.
This, Dockham said, led to trail closures.
“Right now all we are able to do is educate the public, and let them know that risk exists. And part of that has been closing the park,” Dockham said. Earlier, during the salmon run up Indian River, trails in the park were closed at night time due to bear risk.
She noted that bears have done some damage to totem poles in the park as well.
The Terrorist was not the only bear active in town Tuesday night.
The Police Department got a call reporting bear activity on Lincoln Street.
“We had people from Ernie’s Bar call us and tell us that there was a bear on Lincoln Street. At Ernie’s Bar! It was the very first time we’ve had patrons having a good time at one of our local watering holes gives us a call and say, ‘Hey, I’m out smoking a cigarette and there’s a bear out here!’” Ewers said. He noted that this was a different bear, a small, rotund boar the department has nicknamed Yogi.
Ewers recommended that Sitkans exercise bear caution, even in town.
“Be very bear aware, even in town. Don’t be complacent... People get more complacent if they’re just going down to Sea Mart,” he said.
Despite the recent bear activity in town, Bethune said it’s not abnormal.
“It’s fairly typical,” he said.
He added that Sitkans handle their garbage better than do residents in Juneau, which is currently experiencing significant bear issues.
“Bear activity across Southeast in general has been way above average. They’re having tremendous issues in Juneau and Haines this year. And Sitka is well below what is going on there. We’re doing a better job with our trash handling,” he said.
And while the wildlife here has caused some property damage, Bethune said, the bears don’t pose a direct threat to people yet.
“These bears around town are remarkably tolerant of people, and this a real testament of bears’ ability to use these urban environments... These bears don’t seem to want to have anything to do with people,” he said.
