The Kenai Peninsula brown bear hunt is still open as of now.
Area biologist with the Department of Fish and Game Jeff Selinger gave us the current numbers.
Selinger: “So far this fall we have taken six brown bears and so we’re sitting at 61 total human caused mortalities for brown bears so the season remains open.”
We asked if he thought the closure of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge for this hunting season has anything to do with the pace.
Selinger: “Last year we did take about half of the animals off of the refuge as well as on the refuge, we don’t really know exactly why it’s lower this year, it’s hard to put an exact finger on it, we have had high harvests the last two years, that could be playing into it, the refuge aspect of it could have an impact of the total number of bears taken or maybe we just don’t have as many people out the hunting, I know we haven’t issued near the number of permits that we did last year.”
Selinger said he has been instructed to close the brown bear hunt when human caused brown bear mortalities reach 66 or 67 bears.