It’s Back To School For These Brown Bears

The above video is courtesy of Margaret Cichoracki (via Anchorage station KTUU), and as you can see, these brown bears apparently couldn’t get a table at the school cafeteria at Eagle River High School in the Anchorage suburbs and helped themselves to a few leftovers in the trash bins.

Here’s KTUU with more:

In video provided by a KTUU viewer, that scene was captured at Eagle River High School. In the video, a mother brown bear and her three cubs can be seen digging in trash and walking around the school grounds.

“They are still in and around our neighborhood, making it difficult to get kids to the school bus or high school,” said Margaret Cichoracki, who captured the bears on video. She said she reported the family of bears to Fish and Game.

Ken Marsh, spokesperson with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said that while it can be exciting to see bears, this case is very serious, both for humans and for the bears themselves.

The schools, which do not deploy bear-resistant trash cans, are among other food sources in the Eagle River area that may be delaying the bears’ natural hibernation process.

“Bears, especially brown bears, if provided with a continuing food source, may delay their hibernation, and stick around,” Marsh said. That’s why authorities say it’s really important to keep trash locked away.

Eagle River’s nickname is the Wolves, but we propose to make thie members of this bear family the new mascots of the school!