The brown bear hunting season in the upper Lynn canal has been closed. The bears responsible for opening car doors intown are still at large.
The brown bear hunt in the upper Lynn canal is closing on Wednesday at midnight.
Carl Koch is a biologist with the Alaska department of Fish and Game.
Koch: “The last animal was shot by a hunter that was hunting goats, so we are still gathering the information, but it’s a confirmed brown bear, so we have met our quota.”
Koch says the department has set a quota after a high mortality year in 2020.
Koch: “We hope to keep it within that five year plan, which is no more than five harvest, but also a total mortality of no more than seven independent bears. So we have eight, but one is a cub, so we are already at seven independent bears. And the other thing, we want to keep the average number of females to two or less, and I think once we get this most recent one confirmed, it’s going to turn out to be a third female.”
Koch says as far as he knows, the bears who have been opening car doors in Haines are still active, he recommends to keep cars free of attractants and lock the doors.
