Many people have reported a higher number of bigger brown bears on the Kenai Peninsula.
“It got to the point in the last couple years, especially in the 2009-2012, where the bears were just too extensive. We had eight or nine bears in the evening and we couldn’t even use our property. You felt like you were in the zoo.
I spend about 200 plus days in the wilderness on the Kenai Peninsula, trapping or hunting, or just hiking back in and I can tell you, there are tons of them.”
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Biologist Jeff Selinger said there’s no doubt that between the late 90’s until around 2011, brown bear populations increased.
Selinger: “We’ve seen increased reports of bears but we’ve also seen increased populations of people. We’ve seen increases of salmon runs in recent years, particularly the red salmon. So there’s a lot of factors that will play into what a brown bear population will be.”
The recent years of increased red salmon numbers could be why people are reporting bigger bears because browns’ productivity usually follows that trend.
Overall however, Selinger believes the increased hunting allotments over the past few years has actually decreased the brown bear population from the previous period of population growth.
The Kenai Peninsula Brown Bear hunting season is slated to begin September 1.
