Brown bears (Ursus arctos) inhabit the mainland of southeast Alaska and the islands north of Frederick Sound. Greatest numbers occur in Alaska Game Management Unit 4, the ABC (Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof) islands, where about 70 percent of the southeastern harvest is taken. Average sport harvests increased from 51 bears per year (1949-56) to 60 per year (1962-72) to 141 in 1975. Other pertinent harvest statistics have remained fairly consistent since 1949; average skin size (length plus width), 4.1 m; average skull size (length plus width), 54.6 cm. Based on dental annuli, ages of males have averaged 8.1 years since 1968. The highest mean annual age was 9.4 years in 1976. The goal of management is to maintain a high-quality hunting experience, which an annual harvest rate of 60-80 animals per year will do much to provide. Harvest statistics gathered over the past 30 years will provide guidelines to insure that management plans are biologically sound. Current regulations that should limit the harvest to desired levels are a $25 tag fee for resident hunters and a limit on the number of guides who can operate in Unit 4. If these fail, time-space zoning, further restrictions on guides, or ultimately permit-only hunting will be necessary. Transfer of nearly 151,760 ha to private land through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and continuing large-scale clearcut logging further cloud the management issue, but with prudent management policies, high-quality and reasonably high-quantity brown bear sport hunting should be possible for many years to come.
- Volume 4
- Issue
- Pages 263-270
- Publication Date 1 January 1980
- DOI 10.2307/3872879
- File Size 320.13 KB
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