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Alaska is set to resume the aerial gunning of bears and wolves as a population control measure aimed at boosting caribou and moose herd numbers, even as the state’s own evaluation of the practice cast doubt on its effectiveness.
The renewed program would allow hunters to eliminate up to 80% of the animals on 20,000 acres of state land. Environmental groups opposed to what they label a “barbaric” practice of shooting wildlife from helicopters is more about sport than scientific practice in part because hunters want caribou populations to increase because they are trophy animals.
“Alaska’s practice of indiscriminately strafing predators is both inhumane and inane,” said Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska-Fairbanks ecologist now with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), which opposes the practice. “There is no scientific evidence that this carnage will boost populations of moose and caribou, and there is a growing body of evidence that it disrupts a healthy predator/prey balance in the wild.”
The report comes after the Biden administration effectively upheld Trump era rules that allowed for other inhumane hunting practices on federal lands in Alaska, like killing cubs in dens.
Alaska’s “intensive management” allows Alaskan game agents to kill any brown bear, black bear or wolf on some state lands. Nearly 100 bears, including 20 cubs, were killed by helicopter in 2023.
The latest program would allow aerial hunters to kill 80% of wolves (until the population is reduced to 35), 80% of black bears (until the population is reduced to 700) and 60% brown bears (until the population is reduced to 375).
Though the practice’s supporters say eliminating the predators helps boost sagging caribou populations, an October state report that examined predator kill practices came to a different conclusion.
“The goal of the project was to increase caribou calf survival by removing all bears and wolves from the calving grounds,” the report reads. “Data does not exist to evaluate whether the goal was achieved.”
The largest factors in caribou herd decline were “disease, nutrition, and winter severity”, the report states. About 65% died from starvation or dehydration.
Critics say the state also notes that it doesn’t know the practices’ full impact on bear populations because it did not estimate brown bear numbers before allowing the kills. More than half of the brown bears killed in 2024 were adult females, raising further questions about the population’s ability to rebound.
Meanwhile, the state refuses to allow photographs of the slaughter, independent observers to be present, or to subject the program to scientific review by the federal government.
The practice has had other consequences: The National Park Service has ended a more than 20-year study of wolf behavior in the nearby Yukon-Charley National Preserve because the resident wolf population has fallen so low.
Meanwhile, it has reduced tourism in the area because the ability of visitors to view intact wolf packs inside adjacent Denali National Park, one of the state’s major tourist draws, has plummeted. The state has said the hunting program raises revenue from hunters, but critics called it the “epitome of pound foolish”.
“The amount of tourist dollars from people seeking to view these predators in the wild dwarfs any incremental increase in hunting fee revenue the state hopes to realize,” said Peer executive director Tim Whitehouse.
