A second cub is still at large.

Alaska State Troopers report that the sow and her cubs entered a storage building at a residence in the 4200-block of Halibut Point Road around 3 a.m. The bears attempted to open freezers, causing damage.

The shooting of the sow and one of the cubs was determined to be a valid defense of life or property, or DLP.

Wildlife Trooper Brian Dirks told KCAW that this sow had small yearling cubs, and was not the same animal seen often around town recently with two older, much larger cubs.

Nevertheless, he urges residents not to approach the remaining yearling cub, as it can still be dangerous, and will likely continue trying to break into trash cans. He recommends calling Troopers or Sitka Police before trying to haze the animal.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Troopers issued three citations to residents in the Indian River neighborhood for negligently feeding wildlife. Troopers observed another sow with two cubs feeding on trash which had been improperly stored outside. The bears had previously been hazed from the area, but nevertheless returned. The fine for negligently feeding game is $320.

Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist Phil Mooney says he and a state trooper and a Forest Service law enforcement officer had been combing the Starrigavan Campground for three days, but were unable to locate the juvenile bear.

This picture of the bear was taken a few days before a trooper killed the animal as it charged. (ADF&G photo)

Mooney says he and the two officers had just returned to town Sunday afternoon when they received another report of the bear around 1 PM. But when he got back out to the valley, the incident had already turned deadly.

“The Forest Service law enforcement officer is coming from one side, and the trooper was already out on the boardwalk. I was about two minutes behind him. The bear charged the trooper. He shot it at less than 10 feet. It would have made contact with him, I’m pretty sure.”

The animal was first seen at Starrigavan on May 4. It often appeared in the estuary in broad daylight, and appeared to be growing impatient with the people and dogs who approached it on the boardwalk.

“I’m sure a couple of hundred people went out there. Lots of days, 40-50 people would show up there. A lot of people would stay back, but a lot of people pushed up close to it on the boardwalk to try and get pictures. And it was obvious from its behavior that it was getting more and more irritated with people.”

The bear was a female, less than two years old. It weighed 150 pounds. Officers were able to load the animal into a wheelbarrow to remove it from the trail.

Mooney believes he had encountered this cub and her sow several times last year when he was tagging deer in valley, and neither displayed any aggressive behavior.

Sometime over the winter, however, the sow likely died, leaving the cub to fend for itself. Mooney says the odds were stacked against this cub, and little that the state could do to protect it — especially in a heavily-used recreation area.

“There’s no place to move it to. It doesn’t have a home range that it owns, and it’s out in the middle of the day because other big bears aren’t. For bears, it’s not Starrigavan, it’s ‘Deathgavan’ and there’s just no place to go.”

Mooney says the animal was in good condition. “There was nothing wrong with it,” he says. “It just didn’t have the working knowledge to stay away from people.”

The bear’s meat was salvaged and donated to the Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center.