East End Bear Shot While Raiding Chicken Coop

Jay Barrett/KMXT
There’s one less bear wandering around the east end of Kodiak. An eight-foot, four-year-old male bear was shot late on Saturday, according to Fish and Game wildlife biologist Larry Van Daele. He said the bear was raiding a chicken coop near Bayside Fire Station when the homeowner shot him in defense of life and property.

There have been a number of bear sightings the past few weeks from the vicinity of Kodiak College and Woodland Acres, to Island Lake, and even on Selief Lane. While some raided garbage cans, this is the first one to be caught doing anything malicious. The roll-cart garbage cans the Kodiak Island Borough has mandated for much of town seemed to be an especially attractive opportunity for the bears, given that many are placed on the curb the night before a pick-up is scheduled.
Van Daele said unless the bears are taught that some behavior is unacceptable, they will keep up habits that work for them – until of course they overstep their bounds with humans.
Kodiak’s town bears, as Van Daele calls them, number about a dozen. But he adds they are generally well-behaved, due to their extensive experience around humans.
He said the current cold snap signaling that winter is on the way should drive the bears into the hills to den-up. But, he said if they don’t move on, hunting season starts on Thursday.