A two -year-old Kodiak brown bear has escaped her enclosure at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. Conservation Center spokesman Ethan Tyler says the female Shaguyik escaped when an electric fence surrounding the bear’s enclosure was turned off for maintenance on Tuesday.
The 300-pound Shaguyik is one of two orphaned Kodiak brown bear cubs housed at the Conservation Center. The bear was last seen in mountains between Placer and Portage valleys. Tyler says the center is working with the Department of Fish and Game to find the blond bear from the air.
He says if Shaguyik is located by officials, she will be darted with a tranquilizer.
Shaguyik was destined to be sent to a Swedish bear exhibit in June. He says the Swedish facility has been notified of the bear’s escape.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
