Cluck and Cover: Sow’s nightly South Anchorage poultry plunder

In South Anchorage, a brown bear sow and her two nearly grown cubs have been seeking unnatural prey and causing thousands of dollars damage in the process. Homeowners in neighborhoods stretching from Lake Otis to Hillside and O’Malley to DeArmoun are growing uneasy as this bear family has developed a taste for an unconventional snack: backyard chickens and the occasional turkey. While she’s also sticking to her natural diet—evidenced by two moose calves killed near Elmore and Huffman this past Friday—her nightly raids on chicken coops have residents on edge.

Reports on social media and apps like Ring and Nextdoor document her successfully slaughtering chickens from over half a dozen coops in the past two weeks. Attempted break ins, featured in the video shown above, have also been numerous. The cubs, now old enough to join their mother’s escapades, only add to the concern. A bear with mature cubs isn’t just a curious visitor—she’s a formidable presence.

(Sow and cubs target coop off Elmore. Photo via Facebook.)

This isn’t the first time a bear has caused a stir in Anchorage. Back in 2019, a brown bear in a nearby Hillside neighborhood was shot by Fish and Game after it tried to break into a chicken pen and showed no fear of humans. That bear’s behavior mirrors what residents are seeing now: a determined animal drawn to easy meals. But unlike that case, Fish and Game has shared no immediate plans to relocate or remove this sow and her cubs. The agency’s stance is that the bears are behaving naturally, even if their choice of food isn’t. The nightly chicken coop raids don’t yet meet Fish and Game’s threshold for intervention. Instead, they are asking livestock owners to step up their bear deterrents and consider installing an electric fence.

(Coop off DeArmoun heavily damaged, chickens eaten. Photo via Facebook.)

Contrast that with a recent incident downtown, where a young black bear took a sunny-day stroll near the federal courthouse on June 12. Weighing only about 100 pounds, the bear was quickly darted and whisked away to “the big wild yonder” north of the city, according to Fish and Game. The response was swift. That instance has some homeowners who have reported this problematic bear family asking why the South Anchorage bears aren’t getting the same treatment.

For the backyard chicken community, the situation calls for some tough choices. While electric fences are proven to work, they are not mandated under the law. They are also expensive, can be intimidating, and can pose their own risks to families of young children or pets. Some homeowners have decided to “take a break” from chickens after being wiped out. Others have moved their flock inside to garages or rehomed them. “The girls might be indoor chickens for life,” said one chicken owner who lives next door to a coop that was recently destroyed.

And it’s not just chickens. There are rumors the sow charged a homeowner and young child who were protecting their remaining flock. A firearm may have been discharged. Another resident nearly collided with one of the cubs off Elmore between O’Malley  and Huffman early one morning. “If I didn’t stomp on the brakes I would have hit one. Who knows what Mama would have done.” The sow’s boldness, coupled with her cubs’ presence, has many wondering when Fish and Game will step in. “Nuisance bears can be a real issue. It can be incredibly dangerous once they start recognizing our homes as food sources,” said South Anchorage Assemblymember Keith McCormick, who is aware of the bear’s presence in his district. With this powerhouse of a sow and two growing cubs prowling the Hillside, residents are left wondering how long “coexisting” will feel manageable.

Allison Hovanec was born and raised in Alaska. She and her husband are raising four young children in South Anchorage. She is a small business owner, writer for the Alaska Political Report and generally competent.

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Dan Svatass
21 days ago

In a related story, residents of Phoenix are angry that it’s kinda hot outside.

Laurie Kron
21 days ago

Well in my opinion. BEAR NOT AFRAID OF HUMANS CAN BE A NUISANCE..BUT THE BEAR IS A BEAR AND WILL GET FOOD WHERE THEY CAN….SO OF IT HIRTS A HUMAN THAN WILL THE WILL THE FISH AND GAME ACT….OR ARE THEY SHORT OF PERSONNEL

Bears were there first
17 days ago
Reply to  Laurie Kron

WHY ARE YOU YELLING

Joseph Geldhof
21 days ago

ADF&G might be distracted from dealing with a problem bear in Anchorage because the department is obsessed with killing hundreds of bears from helicopters out in rural Alaska. So far, ADF&G had spent close to a million dollars the last two years killing bears.

Dan
20 days ago

I’m generally on the “kill bears that habituate to humans” side of the ledger, and wouldn’t have a problem killing this bear and cubs to be on the safe side. That said, a couple points need to be made: 1) It is not at all “habituated behavior” for a grizzly bear to investigate a chicken coop during the evening hours while the humans are inside their bedrooms. This is normal bear behavior. Bears tend to be very shy around humans, but not around human structures. Breaking into livestock barns at night is totally normal bear behavior. Walking through a crowded… Read more »

Dan
20 days ago
Reply to  Dan

I’m just going to add – on the subject of electric fences being hazardous to children, I think it’s certainly fair to say that unprotected chicken coops that attract Grizzly Bears are an order of magnitude more dangerous to your kids than is an electric fence which, if most neighborhood farmers used them, would make the neighborhood less attractive to 500 lb predators.

George Hornberger
20 days ago

Kill the damn thing. That is the only reasonable course of action. Kill the cubs as well. They will not quit now and they pose a real danger to everyone. Kids especially.

Dan Svatass
20 days ago

EVERY bear has this behavior.

So kill EVERY bear?

Reggie Taylor
20 days ago
Reply to  Dan Svatass

There are some 30 brown bears within the muni borders, and they all aren’t raiding people’s backyards. So no, there is no need to kill every bear. But more liberal hunting regs in Chugach State Park might be in order.

Dan Svatass
19 days ago
Reply to  Reggie Taylor

Nothing in this article suggests any need for “more liberal hunting regs in Chugach State Park.”

Rather, this article suggests a blindingly obvious need for more responsible private land husbandry.

Sean
20 days ago

Get an electric fence. No excuse for having unprotected livestock in Anchorage. We live next to a huge state park that is great for wildlife, and we love our trails into and out of town. Anchorage has moose calves, salmon, and other natural foods bears will eat. If you want to keep chickens, get a damn electric fence. They work wonderfully on bears. There are bears on our streams and in our greenbelts and the vast majority are never noticed by people. Bears are enticed into backyards by livestock and rewarded with a dinner of that livestock. If the bear… Read more »

Bosco Skeffington III
19 days ago

Electric fences are not at all expensive. The parts are less than $200 (energizer, 6′ rebar sections, conductors, wire, and gate components), which is very reasonable insurance against the cost of repairing coops, replacing chickens, and the danger of having a sow with cubs drawn to your yard.

George
18 days ago

In my experience, having lived in very rural Alaska for 60 plus years, any bear that starts to frequent trash cans, chicken coops etc. needs to be done away with. There is no reason to have a brown bear with cubs in a persons back yard. The simple fact of the matter is that in a city or village setting, bears and humans are a very bad mix. Somewhere like McNeil River or Brooks Camp where things are very highly monitored is ok and can be really cool. Bears tearing into chicken coops etc. is not cool. Kill them before… Read more »

Dan Svatass
18 days ago
Reply to  George

We should totally follow this logic and make Anchorage’s wildlife indistinguishable from that of Wilmington, Delaware.

Because we couldn’t possible demand that chicken coop owners do anything to secure their hobby birds.

Shelley Gill
18 days ago

They were here first. You chose to serve fast food.