Bear Baiting in Alaska's National Preserves: Risks to Visitor Safety

Bait stations draw bears with food. This one held bread and dog food with sweet syrup poured over it.

More than 70 percent of national park lands in Alaska are open to hunting. One practice allowed under State of Alaska rules — bear baiting — sets hunters' access against visitor safety.

Why baiting is a problem in parks

• Bait stations are, in effect, feeding bears — exactly what parks try to prevent, because bears become food-conditioned.
• Bears defend a bait station as they would any food, which can endanger hikers and other visitors nearby.
• Stations make contact and conflict between bears and people more likely, which can mean risks to the public, bears killed in defence of life and property, or both.
• Mitigating the risks is hard, and most strategies do not keep bears and people apart.

The study

Bear baiting is allowed in 12 states, 2 territories and 8 provinces of North America. In Alaska, where state hunting rules apply in national preserves unless they conflict with park purposes, baiting is allowed with few limits on the kind or amount of bait — though stations must be at least ¼ mile from roads and trails and 1 mile from cabins and homes. Preserves also host hiking, camping, fishing and more, and because roads and trails are few, hunters and other visitors often use the same areas.

Researchers sent questionnaires to 14 NPS and 27 non-NPS experts in bear research and management, asking how baiting fits state and federal wildlife mandates. Their opinions differed only in minor ways, and the findings were unequivocal:

• baiting is functionally the same as feeding bears;
• bears may defend a bait station as they would a carcass;
• baiting can teach bears to seek human food;
• it makes it more likely bears will be killed in defence of life and property;
• it alters natural bear behaviour and ecological processes;
• current ways of reducing risks to people and property are inadequate — and since bears defend food, avoiding food conditioning is at the heart of every bear agency's public messaging.

In short, bear baiting pits state mandates, which stress hunting opportunity, against NPS mandates that include public safety and natural processes.

Sources

• National Park Service, "Bear baiting poses risks to visitor safety." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bear-baiting-risks.htm
• Lafferty, D.J.R., Trujillo, S.M., Hilderbrand, G.V., Sears, A., Christian, P., Payer, D., and Hake, M., 2024, Bear baiting risks and mitigations: an assessment using expert opinion analyses: PLOS ONE 19(11): e0312192. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0312192
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.