During the next four years, Fish and Game officers shot an average of 13 bears each year. Sinnott said the increase happened because bears have become conditioned to human food and because hunting seasons have been closed both in the park and expanding residential areas. Chris Kleckner is working with Sinnott to find out more about urban bears. A graduate student at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Kleckner has radio-collared 13 black bears. Each week, he tracks them to discover where they move and what they eat.
Human behavior is the initial cause of bear encounters.
Sinnott said relocating bears is expensive, and it rarely works. Bears have returned home after being moved 100 miles, and the danger of placing a bear with bad habits in someone else's backyard makes it an option Fish and Game almost never chooses. Most problem bears end up like the one that was shot by Fish and Game officers on June 22, because it was feeding from garbage cans in an Eagle River subdivision. Some people think bears have no place in Anchorage, but Sinnott said a recent survey indicated that many in the city enjoy the novelty of living in an urban area bounded by a wild one.