Grizzly Bear

It was Memorial day weekend and we were sleeping when Skipper started barking like crazy outside...I woke up Erik of course he thought I was silly thinking something wasn't right. When I got to the back door to look out the cubs were playing right next to skipper and the goats. I yelled at Erik to come out and he really didn't believe me until he saw it. Erik put his jeans on and went to the shop to get his rifle...in the mean time I called the trooper cause I was worried about where the Mama bear was and didn't want Erik to get hurt. Anyway I turned around and the bears were in with Austin's cows I think they just jumped right over the fence. Erik fired a couple of shots to scare them away but they wouldn't go anywhere, they were eyeing the cow as one lunged after Tank - Erik nailed him and it took a bit but the bear went down. The second one took off at that point. Austin, Erik and Jim (our neighbor) skinned the bear and cleaned him up. We had to bring his carcass into fish & game and since Erik didn't have his bear tag we couldn't keep the skin.

One of the grizzly cubs that were rough housing in the back yard.

: Here\'s the article on Erik\'s bear...

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner online.

Grizzly killed off Farmers LoopA Fairbanks man shot and killed a grizzly bear early Thursday morning off Farmers Loop, just a mile or two north of town, when the bear and its sibling expressed an interest in his backyard farm.

"They were kind of nosing around where the guy had a cow and some geese," said state wildlife biologist Don Young with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. "He yelled at them and shot a couple shots in the dirt and they kind of ran off and split up but one came back and he ended up shooting it.

"It's the third grizzly bear that has been killed in defense of life and property in the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the last week.

Two grizzlies were killed last Thursday -- one in Salcha after it got into a pig pen and one at 13 Mile Elliott Highway after it walked into a yard and confronted a barking dog.

This bear was killed on Green Meadow Drive, which basically butts up to the north edge of Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge at the end of Fiedler Road behind Plant Kingdom at 3 Mile Farmers Loop.

State wildlife troopers will investigate the shooting to verify that it was a justified DLP case, Young said.The biologist suspects the bears may have been the same ones that were reported on Skyridge Road last Friday, which is almost directly across Farmers Loop. They also could have been the same bears that were reported on Gilmore Trail and Amanita Road earlier in the week. All three of those sightings were within five miles of one another and all three reports were of two bears approximately the same size.

Young estimated the age of the bear to be 3- or 4-years-old based on looking at its skull and the fact it was still traveling with its sibling. The bear's track was about 5 1/2 inches wide and it probably weighed in the neighborhood of 200 pounds, though it's hard to tell with only the skull and hide to judge by, Young said.

With three grizzlies killed this early in the season and several reports of other grizzlies in other areas, it's not shaping up to be a good year, Young said.

"This early in season, the end of May, three DLPs around Fairbanks is definitely on the high side," the biologist said.

The bear was shot in the same vicinity that two grizzly siblings were reported last year at about this time. One of those bears was shot and killed when it approached a horse corral off Farmers Loop.

Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587 or tmowry@newsminer.com.