Bear Euthanized in WA

[evergreenethos]

I've been following this story for a while as the areas where it had been spotted are places I hike pretty often, and my folks live in the next town over. I'm saddened to think this bear has been suffering for years after the collar stopped working and it continued to grow. I am also shaking my head because I think the people clutching their pearls about bears being in the area are probably the same ones who celebrated the decision to not have a spring bear season here in WA this year. They say this one had been food conditioned so they decided to euthanize it rather than relocate it. Was this a good decision? I don't claim to know more than WDFW, but this 350+ lb boar could have fed a lot of people.

Large black bear spotted near Issaquah needs help after research collar becomes too tight

Huge Black Bear Killed After Two Year Rampage in Washington

 

[hayes202]

I'm sorry I disagree with you anybody is better than the WDFW. They have destroyed the fishing and hunting in this state.

 

[ghost338]

Not a bear expert, and haven't been following this story closely, but euthanizing might have been the best option based on a few fun facts I learned from the former wildlife manager of a popular tree farm in that region.

First, he would tag and relocate bears to the far North border up by Canada. Given enough time, many of the bears would migrate back and be captured again on the same property. Second, typically the bigger more dominate bears in the area would have a smaller home range and wouldn't need to migrate much.

Seems this bear could fit that data and would continue to be a problem.

As for politics running the management, instead of science, that's totally true, and unfortunate.

 

[Wrench]

Wdfw has two sides, enforcement and biology. They do not play well together. 80% of enforcement is well meaning folk, biology.....closer to the inverse of that.

 

[Widgeon11]

Not that Spring bear season would have helped- but wtf, WDFW? Thought those collars were like our crab traps… supposed to fall off after a certain timeframe