By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Officers shot and killed a bear in the Indian River subdivision late Thursday night, but it turned out not to be the one that killed a dog in the area on Wednesday, a Department of Fish and Game official said today.
Wildlife biologist Steve Bethune said identifying a bear in the dark is difficult.
“We had the dog that was killed the night before, and it’s difficult to tell one bear from another,” Bethune told the Sentinel this morning. “So it was a little bit of guilt by association. It turned out not to be the bear that killed the dog the night before, so that bear is still at large.”
The Thursday encounter took place around 10:30 p.m., when the bear passed a police officer in his patrol car near the end of Indian River Road, Bethune said.
The officer shot and wounded the bear with a single slug from a 12 gauge shotgun as it walked by the patrol car. The animal ran into the woods, pursued by local police, troopers, and Bethune, the biologist said.
Five more shots from .375 Holland & Holland Magnum bolt action rifles felled the animal a short way from the road.
“Myself and Alaska wildlife troopers and several police officers were able to trail him … He was wounded pretty badly, but he was still alive when we found him,” Bethune said.
He said the bear was smaller than the one that on Wednesday had killed the dog, a large mixed breed (named Bear) belonging to Geogianna Smith, 105 Rudolph Walton Circle.
Law enforcement and Fish & Game officers kept up the search through the night for the Wednesday bear, without success.
“In fact we continued hunting him last night after killing the first bear. We had a close call but were unable to get him,” Bethune said. He added that he plans to continue the hunt tonight.
He noted that the bear killed last night was the fifth one killed this year on Sitka’s road system. Another large brown bear met its end at the hands of police last month on Edgecumbe Drive.
At Medvejie, a different aggressive bear fell to a round of .22 long rifle ammunition that passed through its sinus cavity into the brain on October 17.
Bethune said he doesn’t recommend trying to haze or kill a bear with a rimfire firearm.
“ADFG would not recommend using a .22 to ever haze a brown bear… It was just a really good example of firearms safety. You’ve heard people say ‘Oh, it’s only a .22,’ but a .22 can be deadly,” he said.
After the death of that sow, Bethune said, its two cubs were put down as well.
After six gunshot wounds, the bear killed Thursday “didn’t go very far – it was a quick drag back to the road,” Bethune said.
The pelt will be sold at the Fur Rendezvous in Anchorage this coming March, in conjunction with the start of the Iditarod, he said.
