A bear near Shotgun Alley headed toward Guertin Island on May 22. (Jessica G. Perkins/2024)

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Alaska Wildlife Troopers killed a young male brown bear on Guertin Island in Sitka Wednesday afternoon after it was found guarding the remains of a large dog it had just killed. Fish and Game wildlife biologist Steve Bethune is confident it is the same bear that killed a different dog in the 2800 block of Sawmill Creek Road on Sunday. 

“I’m pretty sure yeah, I’d say 99.99% it’s the same bear that we’ve been getting pictures of,” he said. “Members of the public have been sending me pictures of it.”

Bethune says he got a call from the Troopers about 1 p.m. Wednesday that a second dog had been killed, and the bear was still guarding the carcass. He said the bear was easy to find and kill because of its location.  

“It was kind of a remote site and actually a good site for doing this kind of work, “he said. “Had a good downhill angle on the bear, the woods were fairly open, no houses or anything like that in the background. So a really safe place to do it and the bear went down quickly and we didn’t have to do any tracking.”

The bear hide, skull, and claws were salvaged and surrendered to Fish and Game. Bethune said the hide will be sent to Anchorage for sale in the annual Fur Rendezvous Auction. Any proceeds will go to the state.

“Hopefully by killing this bear, we’re saving somebody else’s dog and potentially keeping some people from getting hurt.”