Brown bear family tours Alaska high school campus, raids trash

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- An Alaska woman captured photos and videos of a family of brown bears wandering a high school campus and digging through the trash.

Margaret Cichoracki said in a Facebook post she followed the mother bear and her three cubs as they wandered the Eagle River High School campus in Anchorage and raided the trash cans for snacks.

Cichoracki said she reported the sighting to the state Department of Fish and Game.

"They are still in and around our neighborhood, making it difficult to get kids to the school bus or high school," she told KTUU-TV.

Ken Marsh, a Fish and Game spokesman, said the school and neighboring homes should make sure their trash is secured from raiding bears.

"Bears, especially brown bears, if provided with a continuing food source, may delay their hibernation, and stick around," Marsh said.

He said officials recommend residents attempt to scare black bears away, but that approach is not recommended for brown bears.

"With brown bears, that could solicit a charge," Marsh said.

Fish and Game biologists are currently working to locate the bear family, Marsh said.

"Ultimately these bears may have to be destroyed," Marsh said. "I hope I'm wrong, I hope that people lock up their trash and that these bears move on up into the mountains to hibernate, but if this continues that could well be the outcome."