Winter grizzly bears keep Alaska village on edge
Originally published Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 1:49 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 11:58 a.m.
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Last year, it was wolves that tormented residents in the small Brooks Range village of Bettles.
This year, it’s grizzly bears.
A grizzly bear that showed up for Thanksgiving dinner in the Bush village 180 miles north of Fairbanks on Thursday was shot by a local hunter as it was rummaging through an empty cabin looking for food.
Gary Hanchett shot the bear just after noon Thanksgiving Day after getting a call from another villager.
The bear, an old boar that Hanchett estimated at 7 feet tall and 350 pounds, had been spotted in the village several times in the last month and a half.
“People knew I was after him; I had the only bear tag in town,” said Hanchett, a 63-year-old observer for the National Weather Service. “I went down there, and sure enough, he was in this cabin making himself at home, tearing things apart.”
A couple with four children had moved out of the cabin for the winter about a month ago, said Hanchett, who shot the bear through a window.
“He ended up on the wrong end of a 270-grain bullet from a .375-caliber H&H,” Hanchett said with a chuckle.
Another grizzly believed to be bigger than the one Hanshit shot was reportedly seen on a snowmachine trail a few miles south of town on Monday, Bettles Lodge manager Jamie Klaes said. Two passengers on a plane from Wright Air Service spotted the bear as the plane took off from the airport, she said. Residents in the village also have reported seeing tracks of a second bear.
“Last year, we had to worry about wolves, and this year, we’ve got to worry about grizzly bears,” Klaes said, referring to a pack of wolves that came into the village in February and killed two sled dogs in a local musher’s dog lot.
The shooting of one grizzly and sighting of another has many of the town’s roughly 50 residents stirred up, Hanchett said.
“There’s ‘grizzly bearitis’ going around,” he said.
The bear broke into two other empty cabins in town, one of which belonged to an attorney who lives in Minnesota, Hanchett said.
“It was a brand-new cabin, and he tore it to smithereens,” Hanchett said. “He broke the windows and doors, and then he went down the road to another cabin and tore it apart.
“He was getting to be a regular nusiance, and we figured sooner or later he was going to be a problem when somebody ran into him close up,” Hanchett said.
Wildlife biologist Dick Shideler at the Department of Fish and Game, who studies grizzly bears on the North Slope, said he was surprised to hear grizzlies were still out in the Bettles area. Most bears on the North Slope went into hibernation two weeks earlier than normal this year, he said.
“It’s exceptionally late” for a bear to be out, he said.
The only reason a bear wouldn’t be in a den by now is because it has a food source nearby, such as a moose kill or spawning salmon, or it didn’t get enough food to eat this fall.
“It’s all related to food,” Shideler said. “If they’ve got a definite food source, they’ll stay out.”
“Sometimes if they aren’t fat enough, they’ll stay out longer, too,” he said.
Shooting a grizzly bear wasn’t exactly the way Hanchett planned to spend Thanksgiving Day, but it ended a month-plus pursuit. The grizzly first showed up Oct. 16, he said.
“I saw him twice in one day and had no shot,” Hanchett said. “The next day, saw him again and no shot. It was one of those Elmer Fudd deals, ‘where’d he go, where’d he go?’”
Hanchett followed the bear’s tracks on several occasions trying to track him down.
“He’d come back into town and scare the bejesus out of people and take off again to Old Bettles,” Hanchett said, referring to a smattering of deserted cabins a few miles from town. “I could see where he had gone into every cabin looking for food.”
Based on the condition of its teeth, the bear was an old boar, Hanchett said.
“His teeth were worn below the gums,” he said. “He had very, very little fat.”
The bear also appeared to have been shot in the ankle at some point, probably in the fall, Hanchett said. There was a “football-sized abscess” on the joint and the ankle bone was shattered.
“There were probably near 100 pieces of small bone in there,” he said. “It had healed on the outside but not on the inside.
“This bear was in his last year of life,” he said.
That’s probably why the bear was looking for a free meal on Thanksgiving, Hanchett said.
“I’m sure if he had not been injured he would have stayed away from town,” he said.
Hanchett, a part-time trapper, said he took a break from skinning the bear to enjoy a “grand” Thanksgiving dinner. The hide was in good shape, and he plans to have a rug made out of it. He said he will use the bear’s carcass for trap bait.
“He’s going to be used for a wolf set now,” Hanchett said.
Community Discussion
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To my friends in Bettles....stay safe.
Tim should write for the National Enquirer. Really.
Tim really goes for those sensational words, like "...terrorized residents..."
Ohh, I bet those folks up in Bettles were just wetting their pants that they had actual bears and wolves up in bear and wolf country...
Please.
lol tonto12..that's funny! Most of the people there have dealt with this stuff their whole lives, and worse. They know what to do, and how to stay safe.
When you're nose to nose with a grizzly and you aren't terrified, you really don't understand the situation.
One of these days i will see a bear when i'm out in the woods i hope seeing how i have never seen one in the wild i'm sure haveing a big grizzly coming at you must be one scary feeling. As far as mowry i have had no use for his writing since way back when he put in a article he wrote about the olympics he was gonna use a american flag as a barf bag thats right mowry you puke i have not or never will forget that
I like how the bear "took off from the airport".
Homer,please explain more about the barf bag incident.
mowry.
you mean the 'outdoor writer' who cant seem to bag a moose without logan ricketts'(a guide)help? the one who hunts the gulkana river but acts like its a top secret national security issue? that mowry? what do you expect?
Thanks "understandingtreehugger"
I had to check out the article again. Downside of scanning and skimming - I missed the journalistic beauty. The bear "took off from the airport." LMAO! I guess he figured that they are gunning for him it Bettles ... I'll be keeping an eye out on the East Ramp here in Fairbanks ...
You have to understand when it comes to wolves or bears and Tim Mowry the word "terrorize" follows automatically. That way everyone can feel good that, sure enough, someone blasted another critter to smithereens regardless of the circumstances. It's a clever way of justifying a killing that might have been handled by a simple shotgun blast into the air.
These villages are always being "terrorized" or "threatened" or "savaged" or in some way pushed right to the brink of total annihilation until some Leatherstocking kills something. Then, everyone can go home knowing once again they have fulfilled their image of fitting into the wilderness and respecting wildlife.
That's the other word I'm sick to death of being misused/abused "terror[ized]", in this and other contexts.
Folks might be spooked up there as we were last month, but certainly not terrorized.
Grrrrr....so to speak. Break out a dictionary once in awhile Tim, not just for crossword puzzles.
I cant believe that having a bear permit or not would stop those folks or any villager from shooting anything that moves!!
C'mon now. Folks need their firearms up there to get their groceries and run their traplines. No sense in doing something stupid if it means Fin-n-Fur might confiscate your gear.
Dang Tim, you are taking a beating today!! Glad that the folks in Bettles did, and will do, what is necessary to get along just fine. I think the writer of this is Tim Moury, the guy who finished the Yukon Quest, one of the toughest races in the world, and that is an outdoorsman from years back. Lighten up a little guys!! Tim, hope all is well, and happy holidays.
John Greene
Benji the incident was probably 15 years ago i was a teenager and i read it in the newsminer of course it was during the olympics and mowry wrote an article about all the coverage i do believe it was the olympics in georgia and he went on and on about all the attention the athletes were getting and how so many us flags were showing up everywhere and how he was sick of it and he said something to the fact he was gonna use a us flag as a barf bag cause he was sick of everything to do with the olympics i read it and was disgusted and my parents actualy encouraged me to call the editor and i did and he informed me that he had many many complaints and he was sorry it got printed. Since then i have had no use for his writing or him
Winter Bears are some of the most dangerous around. I am glad this one was handled with the right caliber and dispatched. Not like the Polar Bear hunting with a 223 in Fort Yukon not long ago.
Pat
Homer- I run out of breath reading your comments. LOL
A bear needs too eat!! LoL!!
Homer... that was back when he was deep in the throes of a major cold snap and was living under a Blue Tarp with all the seams duct Taped together so the wind didnt come in and the door too .. heating his tent with Moose nuggets.Thats a tough life you know.. doesnt make life easy and its real easy to sort of not THINK about what your writing at a time like that.. let alone try to use a Honey bucket in the size of a Honey Bee honey jar!! :c)
And as for the rest of you that complain about Tim Mowry.. he is just getting you riled up because you all have nothing better to do. He's sitting there with his diet pepsi in his hand and a bowl of popcorn reading all your posts about now with a big silly grin on his face...conjuring up something new to say in the near future He know a long hard winter is coming and you all need to chew on something fat so you can survive it!!! good job Tim.. have a great winter!! (smile)
What is so funny angryalaskan you think its a joke when someone wants to puke in the flag thats funny to you huh it sure aint to me.
i remember one day several years ago tim characterized the ski patrol people at birch hill as turning the recreation area into a "nazi concentration camp." very inappropriate.
If the bears are terrorists, does that mean you're either with us or with the bears? And does it then follow that if the Bears beat the Patriots, then the terrorists have won?
That may be the most insightful, hilarious comment I have ever read on one of these threads
Bears rule in the Brooks Range! what did they expected?
If you are afraid of grizzly bears and wolves you should not live in Alaska.
My name is Joe Nesbitt and i am trying to track down some cousins of mine who were originally from Bettles. Their dad was Bill nesbitt and he was married to a woman from up there but i don't remember her name. I am originally from Byrnedale, Pa and the kids came down there to live after their father died, i would like to get in touch with my cousins as i am thinking about making a trip to Alaska maybe next year and i would like to see them, i only met them a few times. Anybody who has any information would you please contact me at twerp@zitomedia.net will appreciate any help i can get thanks.
If you live in Homer and havent seen a bear, you should get out of the bar more often. Why are you so upset about removing this old bear from pain? A 270 gr bullet from a 375 h&h is a fast and humane end to this old guys suffering, when my teeth wear out and I'm carrying around so much pain that I can't sleep I want a bear to shoot me.
A 270 grain bullet from a 375 H&H is a good way for an intruder.
Hiya, Dobieman, I agree with you about the writing style. OTOH, I am glad that this guy put old man grizzly out of his misery. No teeth, bum leg, he was suffering and bad. When I'm an old old lady (almost there!) and my teeth are gone and my joints are hurting and my ankles are shot and I'm starving and rummaging thru the neighbors' homes for a soft bite to eat, hope someone puts me out of my misery too.
The killing was justified to put the animal out of his misery.
Not that he was hurting anyone but that low of a weight and poor teeth and an injury, he possibly would of died a worse slow death.
the polar bear incident a year ago was a trumped up story if I ever heard one, I know personally the two folk who were involved-like I said before villagers will shoot anything that moves which is why there is no respectable animal within 100 miles of Ft Yukon unless there by mistake. I am sure that little polar bear was out after those two guys. Another story is the musk ox that was killed illegally up in FYU 3-4 years back another example of respecting wildlife, if it moves shoot it! Thats the motto up there!
To northpolian if you are directing your comment to me about living in homer well i got news for you i dont live in homer and i dont drink or hang out in bars so dont make a fool out of yourself by assuming you know something about me Homer is my name. I guess i can assume you are from the north pole and cant spell and i could care less if the bear got shot i just said i would like to see one in the wild
our 200 miles electric fence unit . I using 2 miles of 1/8 stainless steel cable at 8 lines on posts to make around the log cabin. I test volts meter it says 16,500 volts shock . Will produce over 2,000 volts on over 200 miles of fence. *It carries 15 joules of output energy. *20 stored joules * and I wipe with meat on cable and turn it on and let bear smell on stainless steel cable . then few hours later they comes around our cabin they touched it with his nose and get shocked and run away ..It has strong shock OUR UNIT COST 359.00 I ordered it from 48 state 8 month ago
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