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Black Bear in River
There isn’t a single state in America that boasts more bears than Alaska, and they manage to cause their fair share of trouble on the military bases that are located there. That includes the one known as “JBER,” which boasts a shopping mall that was invaded by a hungry one that snatched a single piece of fruit and left a parting gift on the floor.
If you’ve ever visited (or even just passed by) a military base in America, you are likely aware that they do not mess around when it comes to preventing unwanted intruders from making their way onto the property. However, keeping wild animals at bay is easier said than done.
In May, someone driving by Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska captured a black bear and a couple of cubs making their way over a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire that did nothing to deter them, and they were far from the first members of their species to infiltrate the approximately 65,000-acre compound.
Officials have recently rolled out some changes to give the bears less incentive to make their way into the base, but that didn’t stop one from entering a commissary and committing some petty theft before leaving some unfortunate soul with a mess to clean up.
A bear made its way into a mall at a military base in Alaska and was filmed stealing a peach and pooping on the floor
Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson is commonly referred to as “JBER,” and it’s only natural that the abbreviation is pronounced “J-BEAR” when you consider Alaska is home to more than 130,000 bears of the black, brown, and polar variety.
A member of that first species was responsible for a scene that unfolded on Sunday morning inside the mall where the military members stationed at the base can shop for a wide variety of goods.
According to Task & Purpose, a bear took advantage of the automatic doors leading into a grocery store to gain admission around 9 AM, and someone who was shopping there at the time filmed it helping itself to a peach it chowed down in a hallway where another person captured it from the opposite angle
There was also a third video I will link to so you can watch at your own risk, as it involves the bear depositing a solid pile of poop right on the floor.
Major Carly Costello, who serves as director of public affairs for the 673rd Air Base Wing, spoke with the outlet and said the bear exited the mall on its own accord. Members of the facility’s Conservation Law Enforcement were still dispatched to track it down, and they were able to escort it from a parking lot and into the woods.
Costello noted there has been a drop in sightings since JBER installed “bear-resistant dumpsters” a couple of months ago, and while they attempt to relocate the mammals when possible, she noted seven have been euthanized in the past year after they became overly accustomed to relying on humans for food.
Black bears make up the bulk of those incidents, but two soldiers who conducted a training exercise on the base earlier this year were attacked by a grizzly, which occurred four years after another suffered fatal wounds in an attack.