Observation: This bear was found dead along our lake trail and it was bloated with fur falling off, this was about 5 days ago. This is the second bear that died here, there was a sow that died and left a cub in June of this year. We are not sure what happened to the cub though. The Village Public Safety Office (VPSO) was working on this with Fish and Game.
LEO says: This is the first observation this year about sick or dead black bears. We have forwarded this observation to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Consult: Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, D.W.V. writes, "I did not receive any calls or emails about this yet. As far as the carcasses, when it is bloated and hair slipping it is going to be really rotten and unlikely to be of diagnostic value so it is not worth the expense of sending out a pathologist or shipping it in. If it were a poaching or illegal kill, then if the VPSO has a metal detector they could go over it. If Alaska Wildlife Troopers (AWT) designated this as a forensic case worth investigating, I am then, contacted directly by the Division of Alaska Wildlife Troopers (DAWT).
For necropsy and diagnosis as a wildlife mortality event, these must be reported promptly to dfg.dwc.vet@alaska.gov or call (907) 328-8354, retrieved and shipped chilled (not frozen) to Anchorage or Fairbanks within a day or so of death. If we designate that this is a significant mass mortality or a large marine mammal, we may be able to send someone out to necropsy but we would only go to that expense if there were at least some fresh carcasses to examine. In all cases, the key is rapid reporting. Five days after death, we can’t determine much unless is it trauma.
I have investigated two black bear cub mortalities this summer, both had liver disease, one viral infection and the other likely toxin exposure. Both were very fresh though."
Resource:
Alaska Department of Fish & Game – "Black bears (Ursus americanus) are the most abundant and widely distributed species of North American bears. An estimated 100,000 black bears inhabit Alaska."
Animal Diversity Web – "Throughout their range, prime black bear habitat is characterized by relatively inaccessible terrain, thick understory vegetation, and abundant sources of food in the form of shrub or tree-borne soft or hard mast." Kronk, C. 2007. "Ursus americanus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed September 20, 2017.
