DEADHORSE, Alaska (AP) — State game officials have killed a 10-year-old female grizzly bear after it began breaking into kitchens and food-storages areas in Deadhorse, a support enclave for the oil industry on Alaska’s North Slope.
The bear’s two cubs were captured and will be relocated to a zoo in Oakland, California.
Dick Shideler, a state wildlife biologist, squarely placed blame for the bear’s demise on Deadhorse residents not using bear-proof garbage cans.
He says people need to stop placing food waste in unsecured bins, a practice that made this bear conditioned to human-provided food.
The grizzly killed is well-known to researchers on the North Slope. She was known as “Bear 147,” and spent her life around Deadhorse and the nearby Prudhoe Bay oilfields.
This is the first lethal removal of a bear in Deadhorse, located about 10 miles south of Alaska’s northern coast, since seven bears were killed in 2001-2002.
