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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Alaska Takes Aim at Grizzlies
It’s killing season again in Alaska. After sanctioning the shooting of 147 wolves last year, the state’s Board of Game recently approved the killing of 80 grizzly bears in eastern Alaska to boost moose and caribou populations for sport hunters.
The state may allow formerly-illegal methods such as bear baiting to kill the animals, which constitute 60 percent of the bear population in the region. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game may also pay bounties, which they call “financial incentives,” for the killing.
In addition, the board proposed adding another 400 wolves in eastern Alaska to the 500 wolves already targeted elsewhere for aerial and land-and-shoot hunting this winter. With these new programs, the total area of “predator control” covers about 40,000 square miles of Alaska’s interior. When added to other forms of approved wolf-killing—use of snow machines, snares and leg-hold traps—a total of about 2,500 wolves may be killed in Alaska this year. This represents nearly one-third of the entire population of wolves in the state.
”The state has no idea how many wolves, bears or moose exist in these areas, but is forging ahead with massive wolf and bear killing programs because of a minority of disgruntled sport hunters who want more moose to kill,” says Karen Deatherage, Defenders’ Alaska program representative.
Defenders and its allies did succeed in defeating a proposal by the game board to include federal lands, such as Wrangell St.-Elias National Park, in the areas where aerial hunting will be allowed. At press time, Defenders was still waiting to hear from Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton regarding our petition to stop Alaska’s practice of chasing and killing wolves using airplanes.
Visit www.savealaskawolves.org for more information.
