Two male black bears ransacking trash cans in downtown Juneau were euthanized on Wednesday because of aggressive behavior around tourists and other people, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game official said Friday.
Numerous bears are wandering through parts of town, largely attracted by garbage cans and other potential sources of food, said Roy Churchwell, the department’s regional management coordinator. He said the encounter involving the two bears killed was part of an ongoing situation that reached a point where such action was necessary.
“We’ve tried to find the bears and work with them a couple of times, so it’s not just one situation,” he said. “But the time the bears were darted was late at night.”
Fish and Game officials were initially responding to a report of a male yearling entering shops, but instead encountered the other two bears on a long stairwell leading up from South Franklin Street, Churchwell said. He said Juneau Police Department officers also were in the vicinity during some of the responses, but not working directly with Fish and Game officials.
In addition to the bears acting aggressively around the trash cans, tourists and other onlookers were persistent in their efforts to watch, photograph and otherwise interact with the bears during the day, he said. There were relatively few people around during the final nighttime encounter.
The bears were initially tranquilized before being euthanized, Churchwell said. He said merely tranquilizing them and transporting them far from town would not have been a practical alternative.
“If we let go a bear on the road system here — we drive them out the road or somewhere — they come back within a month or less,” he said.
No other bears have been euthanized in the area this year and the only active search downtown is for the yearling that eluded initial efforts, Churchwell said. But he said the more widespread problem of people putting out garbage cans that aren’t properly sealed — or not having bags of garbage in cans at all — is concerning, especially with what seems to be a higher-than-usual number of bears in town this summer.
“It’s still an issue and even if we get these bears the garbage issue needs to be taken care of, or the bears are going to get attuned to the garbage,” he said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
