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Interior hunter shoots rare glacier bear
GENETICS: Recessive gene causes the bruin's silver-blue coloring.
By TIM MOWRY
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
(Published: June 22, 2003)
FAIRBANKS -- It's not every day, year or decade that a hunter in Alaska gets a shot at a glacier bear. So you can imagine Lyle Correll's surprise when he got a second shot at what is considered, especially in the Interior, a rare bear.
Correll shot and killed the bear on May 18 at a bear bait station on the Tanana Flats. Glacier bears are black bears, but their hair is more silver than black, producing an almost bluish tint to the bear's coat. They are also called blue bears.
"I saw the same bear seven years ago," said Correll, who shot the sow with a bow from 11 yards. "It came in (to the bait station), and I missed the opportunity. It caught me moving around up in the tree stand. I was videotaping it, and the camera made a noise. It took a side step like bears do and walked away."
Despite several trips back to the bait station that year and the next, Correll never saw the bear again and he began hunting other stands.
This year, Correll returned to the same bait stand from which he had seen the glacier bear seven years ago, and the bear showed up the first day he was there.
"The first time I saw it six or seven years ago, I was excited," he said. "This year when she came in I really got excited. I knew it was the same bear. I was so shocked I had a second chance at this bear. They don't get old by being dumb."
Judging from the poor condition of her teeth, wildlife technician Tony Hollis, who sealed the bear when Correll brought it in to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, estimated that the bear was more than 20 years old.
"Her teeth were worn down pretty good," Hollis said.
The 53-year-old Correll, who is the operations manager at the Fort Wainwright airfield, described the bear as "silver with black legs."
Glacier bears are more common in Southeast Alaska than they are in the Interior, but even in Southeast they are considered rare. The silver-blue color phase is the result of a recessive gene, said wildlife state Fish and Game biologist Harry Reynolds.
"We have a lot of black bears in the Interior but we don't have very many cinnamon bears and this is a lot more rare than a cinnamon bear," Reynolds said, referring to a lighter color phase of a black bear.
Reynolds, one of Alaska's leading bear experts, has heard of only one other glacier bear taken in the Interior during his 30-year career at Fish and Game. That was in the 1960s on the Wood River, which flows through the Tanana Flats. It's possible the bear Correll shot is related to that bear, Reynolds said.
"If he shot it on the Tanana Flats, that's close enough for sure," he said. "The genes are there but they don't get reflected very often."
The 51/2-foot hide is "absolutely beautiful" and Correll plans to have it made into a rug or a life-size mount. While it's not the biggest bear he has ever taken, it is the most unique, Correll said.
"It's a cool bear," he said.
Distributed by The Associated Press
Interior hunter shoots rare glacier bear
GENETICS: Recessive gene causes the bruin's silver-blue coloring.
By TIM MOWRY
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
(Published: June 22, 2003)
FAIRBANKS -- It's not every day, year or decade that a hunter in Alaska gets a shot at a glacier bear. So you can imagine Lyle Correll's surprise when he got a second shot at what is considered, especially in the Interior, a rare bear.
Correll shot and killed the bear on May 18 at a bear bait station on the Tanana Flats. Glacier bears are black bears, but their hair is more silver than black, producing an almost bluish tint to the bear's coat. They are also called blue bears.
"I saw the same bear seven years ago," said Correll, who shot the sow with a bow from 11 yards. "It came in (to the bait station), and I missed the opportunity. It caught me moving around up in the tree stand. I was videotaping it, and the camera made a noise. It took a side step like bears do and walked away."
Despite several trips back to the bait station that year and the next, Correll never saw the bear again and he began hunting other stands.
This year, Correll returned to the same bait stand from which he had seen the glacier bear seven years ago, and the bear showed up the first day he was there.
"The first time I saw it six or seven years ago, I was excited," he said. "This year when she came in I really got excited. I knew it was the same bear. I was so shocked I had a second chance at this bear. They don't get old by being dumb."
Judging from the poor condition of her teeth, wildlife technician Tony Hollis, who sealed the bear when Correll brought it in to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, estimated that the bear was more than 20 years old.
"Her teeth were worn down pretty good," Hollis said.
The 53-year-old Correll, who is the operations manager at the Fort Wainwright airfield, described the bear as "silver with black legs."
Glacier bears are more common in Southeast Alaska than they are in the Interior, but even in Southeast they are considered rare. The silver-blue color phase is the result of a recessive gene, said wildlife state Fish and Game biologist Harry Reynolds.
"We have a lot of black bears in the Interior but we don't have very many cinnamon bears and this is a lot more rare than a cinnamon bear," Reynolds said, referring to a lighter color phase of a black bear.
Reynolds, one of Alaska's leading bear experts, has heard of only one other glacier bear taken in the Interior during his 30-year career at Fish and Game. That was in the 1960s on the Wood River, which flows through the Tanana Flats. It's possible the bear Correll shot is related to that bear, Reynolds said.
"If he shot it on the Tanana Flats, that's close enough for sure," he said. "The genes are there but they don't get reflected very often."
The 51/2-foot hide is "absolutely beautiful" and Correll plans to have it made into a rug or a life-size mount. While it's not the biggest bear he has ever taken, it is the most unique, Correll said.
"It's a cool bear," he said.
Distributed by The Associated Press
Neat. I'll bet that hunter was one really-thrilled guy when he saw it that second time. It would take one heckuva lot of self-control to not get a screaming case of the whatzits and totally blow the shot...