At Home Bear Awareness

Hey all,

This is the final article of a months worth of articles about these three bears. It does show us all that no matter how safe we think we are. We always need to be prepared.

We have had lots of snow in the last day or so. about 5-8 inches. More coming.

Love
The Big Kahuna



Grizzly sow shot in Salcha weighed 450 pounds
By Tim Mowry

Published Thursday, October 23, 2008

FAIRBANKS — The sow grizzly bear that was shot along with her two cubs at a home in Salcha last week weighed about 450 pounds, said Tom Seaton, assistant Fairbanks area biologist with the Department of Fish and Game.

“That’s fairly normal for an Interior grizzly sow,” Seaton said. “She was not a super big bear, but she was a good, healthy sow. She was not a starving bear.”

The cubs, both females, weighed 130 and 140 pounds, respectively, he said.

The three bears were shot by homeowner Brandon Mattzela on Johnson Road, 35 miles south of Fairbanks, a week ago after they twice broke into his garage and raided his freezer. The bears were at his home when Mattzela returned from a trip to town Oct. 16, and the sow charged him as he was unloading a fuel tank from his truck.

Mattzela managed to make it into his house and then shot the sow from his second-story bedroom window as it paced back and forth in front of his porch. He then shot the two cubs, which emerged from his garage when he shot the sow.

Seaton estimated the sow’s age between 6 and 10 years.

The hides of the bears will be sold in a state auction for hides, horns and antlers that were confiscated as a result of defense of life and property shootings such as the one in Salcha or from animals taken illegally. The hides on the two cubs were “beautiful,” Seaton said, but the sow had several rub marks.

The carcasses of the bears will be examined by veterinarians, and tissue samples will be taken to be studied, Seaton said.

“Very seldom do we get super-fresh bear tissues,” he said. “When we catch bears (for research purposes), we only get blood. We can’t take a chunk of heart.”

The sow’s carcass went to a trapper to be used for bait this winter, Seaton said.

The incident in Salcha illustrates how important it is for Interior residents — and all Alaskans — to take steps to prevent bears from getting into food at their homes.

“Somewhere along the line, this bear learned that human foods were a huge reward,” Seaton said. “We don’t know when that was, but that undoubtedly led to this bear’s behavior.”

Once a bear learns where it can get food, it becomes conditioned to do so.

“The caloric reward of human food is so great for bears,” Seaton said. “They spend days picking berries, digging roots, which is maybe 1,000 calories a day, and then they step into a garbage can or a freezer and get 10,000 or 20,000 calories out of a discarded gallon of ice cream or a can of bacon grease.

“What that means to a bear is 10 or 20 days of hunting for food,” he said. “The reward is so huge, they cannot deny it.”