What’s in your backyard?
Credit: FWS / Image Library
It’s a startling story. Last week, a brown bear took down moose calves and consumed them in full view of a suburban neighborhood on the Anchorage Hillside. A National Geographic film crew even got to snatch images from the comfort of a deck, while sipping lattes and snacking on sushi.
- UPDATE:
- Photos of the kill!
Check out the gripping Anchorage Daily News story, written by outdoor editor Craig Medred and reporter Leslie Anne Jones for details:
Jim Raffuse awoke Wednesday night to what he thought was a child’s scream. He and his wife, Gabrielle, checked out the scene from their deck. A cow moose dashed back and forth. The couple heard the telltale snorts and grumbles of a bear. They feared for the two calves born near their home less than two weeks before.
“We heard the bear snorting,” Gabrielle Raffuse said. “We knew what was going on.”
The grizzly emerged from the brush, dragging the baby moose carcass onto their lawn. For much of the night, the Raffuses’ son, Nicholas, stationed himself on the second-story deck to look out for an elderly neighbor with a habit of walking his dog at odd hours. Fish and Game showed up at 4:30 a.m. to haul away the dead calf.
The next morning, a crew from National Geographic knocked on the door, wanting to know if they could film from the deck. … The grizzly reappeared in the afternoon and this time with the body of the second calf which it had left buried behind a shed near the house. The bear dragged what was left of the calf toward the street and finished its meal in full view of the neighborhood.
