Tag Archives: Kodiak brown bears

A Kodiak brown bear. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/USFWS) Kayla Desroches/KMXT City residents have turned to Facebook a lot over the last month to report bear sightings. Alaska Department of Fish and Game area biologist Nate Svoboda says sometimes citizen reports give the impression of a busy bear season. But actually, he says, numbers are down compared to previous years. There …

Lisa Hupp/USFWS Mitch Borden/KMXT Deer Hunters on Kodiak Island need to be careful of bears this season. That’s because this year there’s a shortage of berries Kodiak brown bears depend on for food. This includes salmon berries and elderberries. Bill Pyle, supervisory wildlife biologist for the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, says this lack of food will affect how bears act. …

Bright red elderberries ripe for bears to harvest. Caroline Cheung / USFWS Kayla Desroches/KMXT Climate change may be throwing off the Kodiak bear’s eating equilibrium. Research says that, on years with warmer spring temperatures, elderberries ripen several weeks earlier than normal. William Deacy, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University, just published findings from a multi-year study of bears on …