Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Sad Story - Bears

Ryan took a couple of his friends driving around Kodiak Island a couple of weeks ago so that they could see more of Kodiak than just the base and town. When they passed the American River, Ryan saw 4 bears cross the road! They stopped and snapped some photos of a sow and her three cubs. It was awesome. Ryan and I hadn't seen a bear yet except for one running from the dumpster in our neighborhood.
Yesterday when I read the Kodiak Daily Mirror, my jaw dropped. I saw the headline "Four bears euthanized after second charging incident." I read on to find out it happened at the American River. Two hunters had encountered what seemed to be one of the cubs charging them. He shot the bear (it seems unclear, the story said the cub charged, that the mom was sleeping, but it also says the mom was shot). Anyways, he was within his rights, feeling threatened. The mom had to be killed because of her injury, and the cubs because they couldn't live without their mom. How sad. This year was a bad year for berries, so the bears were out later trying to fatten up before going into hibernation. Usually they are already in dens by now. The report said that the mother was very thin for this time of year. It is hard to believe that the sweet bears in the photo are gone now.

Here is the link for the article:
These pictures of the bears were taken 12/21/07



2 comments:

newlymed said...

too sad about the bears! Alaska is suposted to be the place for wildlife preservation right? but who's to say I wouldn't have done the same if a bear were runing towards me....

Cassie said...

Great to see your blog. Now I can comment on what your posting. Alaska is beautiful. I wish we could come visit one day. That was so awesome of Ryan to dress up as Santa for his work party. He's gonna be such a good dad. I can't believe those same bears Ryan saw are all gone. That's terrible. Keep posting pictures, we love to see what you guys are up to.