Bears

Around 35 grizzly bears and 200 black bears live in Anchorage. You don't see them very often. The black bears look kind of like big dogs. They sometimes get into people's garbage cans. The city tried to make a law making people have bear-proof garbage cans but they are expensive and the law didn't pass.

Last summer at our teacher's house, there was a big grizzly bear chasing a year-old moose. Later that year, she saw a jogger running down the road. Right behind him a black bear came out of the bushes. A few years ago, some hikers were killed by a grizzly. That doesn't happen very often. Everybody was surprised because bears usually don't want anything to do with people. They go the other way if they see you.

When you see a bear, don't run. Say "Hey bear!" or sing to the bear to let him know you are a person, not something to eat. Bears don't see too well but they can smell really well. Don't take your eyes off the bear. Don't play dead unless the bear attacks or the bear might come over to see why you fell down. The only polar bears in Anchorage are at the zoo. A famous polar bear named Binky lived at the Anchorage zoo from when he was a cub until he died a couple of years ago. He was famous because once an Australian tourist got close to his cage to take his picture through the bars and he ran over and grabbed her. He took her tennis shoe and chewed on it for several hours. The tourist was sorry she hadn't paid attention to the signs. After that hundreds of people came from Australia to see him.

Kathy wrote a story about a bear in the neighborhood.