Court Rules Alaska’s Brown Bears Still Protected From Hunting

• Thomas Nelson
• December 22, 2020
• Animals, Politics
• 0 Comments

The Humane Society of the United States in conjunction with the Trustees for Alaska prevailed in a lawsuit that sought to maintain protections for brown bears in Alaska. A federal court ruled that brown bears living in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge are protected from hunters.

It is legal to hunt bears elsewhere in the state during spring and fall bear hunting seasons, but because the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is federally controlled land, it is exempt from state rules. It is illegal to kill cubs and female bears with offspring. The judgement of the federal court trumps regional laws.

The act of hunting brown bears is unsportsmanlike at best. The bears are often baited by hunters with sweet foods like donuts, at which point they are killed by hunters. The ban on hunting brown bears on federal land in Alaska was first put into effect by the Obama administration and has so far been upheld.

The Trump administration is in the process of attempting to overturn the rule on baiting bears in Kenai.

Baiting brown bears is not only a problem due to the subsequent killing of them, but it habituates wild bears to human food, increasing the odds that brown bears and unsuspecting humans have fatal encounters with one another. The bait used can also be toxic to other wildlife in Kenai.

According to a survey conducted by the Remington Research Group, baiting and hunting these bears is unpopular among Alaskans. When asked, only 28% supported the practice of allowing trophy hunters to bait brown bears in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. 66% opposed and 6% had no opinion.

Alaskans surveyed also opposed using leghold traps in Kenai at the same margin, 66 to 28.

Those surveyed also rejected using a variety of currently prohibited hunting methods, including killing wolf and coyote pups in their dens, using artificial light to kill hibernating bears, and baiting black and brown bears. Only 24% support these methods of hunting.

The Human Society of the United States argues that these methods of hunting are biologically unsound and that Alaska’s brown bears already face threats from climate change and loss of habitat. They fear that added pressure from trophy hunters could make things worse for Alaska’s bears.

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