US: State kills over 80 bears in Southwest Alaska in second-year effort to boost caribou

State wildlife officials have now killed a total of 180 bears on Southwest Alaska caribou calving grounds in just over a year as part of a contested strategy to restore the renowned Mulchatna herd. Shooting from a helicopter between May 10 and June 5, Alaska Department of Fish and Game employees killed 81 brown bears and 14 wolves they spotted across 530 square miles of tundra, officials said this month. In 2023, the first year of the program, state employees killed 94 brown bears including some cubs, five black bears and five wolves. State wildlife officials say killing bears feeding on newborn calves is a last-ditch attempt to shore up a herd that has declined from a peak of 200,000 animals in 1997 to just over 13,000 today. The state halted all hunting of Mulchatna caribou in 2021 with a goal of reaching a herd size of 30,000 to 80,000 animals. Wildlife officials now say the strategy is working: Calf-cow ratios used to measure summer calf survival nearly doubled last fall ...