Alaska has decided to give a new boost to bear and wolf hunting from helicopters in its territory, a practice condemned as "barbaric" by environmental associations. This practice was reintroduced during Donald Trump's first term and continued even under the presidency of Joe Biden despite criticism.
The American state has justified the practice to allow the increase of local reindeer populations and has designated an area of 8,000 hectares with the aim of shooting down predators from helicopters. One hundred bears, including twenty cubs, were annihilated in 2023 through this procedure.
The program for this year grants aerial hunters a license to eliminate in the designated area 80% of North American black bears (until reducing their population to 700) and 80% of wolves (until limiting their number to 37). The goal is also to eliminate 60% of brown bears (leaving them at 375).
"The practice of indiscriminately shooting down predators in Alaska is inhumane and absurd," declared Rick Steiner to The Guardian, a former professor at the University of Fairbanks, who now leads the environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
"There is no scientific evidence that this slaughter precisely serves to enhance reindeer and moose populations," warns Steiner. "Moreover, there is increasing evidence that it serves to disrupt the balance between predators and prey in wild territories." According to Steiner, the measure actually responds to pressure from hunters eager to see reindeer populations increase so they can display them as "trophy animals."
Over 70 academics and biologists joined forces in the PEER group during Trump's first term, who decided to lift the ban in place since the Obama Administration on practices such as helicopter hunting or killing cubs in dens. The Biden Administration decided to covertly maintain these practices, now reactivated with Trump's reelection and in a traditionally Republican state.
Environmental groups highlight how the new boost to this controversial practice comes just four months after a state report acknowledged that "there is no data" to assess whether aerial hunting and the killing of wolf and bear cubs have had an impact on the reindeer population. The report emphasized that diseases, malnutrition, and the severity of winters are the main causes of reindeer population decline.