Alaska Photos 7 - Yukon River Bear Story

[GB1]

A quick story here, Alaskan style.

Just north of the Yukon River in Alaska on the way to the Arctic Ocean there's a small truck stop restaurant there along the river which once had a bear break in after hours and ransack the place. It was in the winter and the bear was older and probably couldn't hunt too well, and didn't have the fat to survive the winter. They had to call someone up from Coldfoot (another truck stop just north) who dog-sledded in and shot the poor bear, there not being much of a choice. They keep a photo album of the experience...


GB




The Yukon River


The truck stop

[armando_m]

interesting story!! thanks for posting it

[GB1]

Glad you like it Armando. Problem bears up there almost always have to be eliminated. Survival is especially tough in the far north where there's not a lot of food, and animals can do desperate things.

G

[Photo-John]

Nice post - but poor bear

It's bad how wildlife loses in any conflict with humans. But what are you going to do. I have lived around bears and had to follow a trail of garbage into the woods in the morning. Scary. I hate to see them get killed, though. There's a saying, "feed a bear, kill a bear." Once they learn it's easier to get food from humans, it's only a matter of time.

[GB1]

PJ,

Yeah I agree, but there's not a lot people can do other than not encourage them to come around by leaving food around/

I met the fellow (Chad) that shot this bear.. He said he also had another unfortunate encounter - an older bear came into his camp one December and started munching out on his chained-up sled dogs What an uneven fight. It killed five of his dogs before he came around the corner and shot it. He was lucky to have been armed, because he said it was about to charge him.

[Photo-John]

Yeah I agree, but there's not a lot people can do other than not encourage them to come around by leaving food around/

Oh yeah. I know. It's just said, that's all.