After federal managers expressed lingering concerns about the harvest of Kenai Peninsula Brown bears, the Board of Game yesterday opted to lower the self-defense and hunting limit.
Previously, the cap was 70 browns, the new cap is 50-60, with no more than 12 adult females taken.
Andy Loranger with the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge…
Loranger: “High mortality of adult females and of females overall, occurring primarily in 2012 and 2013 also negatively impacted the future productivity of this population, an effect which is expected to continue at least several years.”
For the past two years the Refuge has closed brown bear hunting early. Managers say 17% of reproductive-age females on the Peninsula were killed in 2013.
