Photo courtesy Jim Landess Sterling resident Jim Landess kneels next to the 9-foot brown bear he killed after it attempted to break into his house on July 7.

Photo courtesy Jim Landess Sterling resident Jim Landess kneels next to the 9-foot brown bear he killed after it attempted to break into his house on July 7.

Brown bear killed at Sterling residence

  • By DAN BALMER
  • Monday, July 14, 2014 11:23pm
  • News

A Sterling man killed a 9-foot brown bear with a pistol after the bear attempted to break into his home multiple times in the early morning of July 7.

Jim Landess and his 17-year-old son Montana Landess awoke at about 3:30 a.m. to the sound of a brown bear knocking on his house on Bunno Road on the east edge of Sterling.

“There was some loud banging on one of my windows in the first level and pounding on my walls which shook the whole house,” Landess wrote in an email. “My son was sleeping downstairs and stood up to be eye-level with a 9-foot brown bear looking at him through the dinning room window.”

Landess said he looked outside his upstairs window and saw the bear peaking over the bed of his pickup truck. He yelled at the bear and his dog barked, which caused the bear to run into the woods.

Landess said he walked into the woods and told his son to keep an eye on the bear so he could grab a gun from his truck. While he went to get a gun outside, the bear circled around to the end of his driveway and started to walk back toward him.

Both Landess and his son shot a couple rounds off and the bear scattered back into the woods.

“We went back inside assuming this was just a routine of scaring off another bear as we do almost every summer,” he said.

After going to bed for the night, Landess received an early morning wake up call from the bear. At about 6 a.m. he heard more banging in front of the house as the bear attempted to get inside.

“I couldn’t believe that it came back,” he said.

Landess grabbed his highpoint .45 pistol stepped out onto his upper deck, took aim and fired seven rounds toward the bear’s vitals. He said the bear “got crazy” and started running about 50 feet before it collapsed and died.

Landess said while he has seen bears around his property in the past living in close proximity to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, he had never experienced one this aggressive. He said he didn’t have any food around his house that could have attracted the bear but did have an empty cooler on his porch that the bear tossed around along with some chairs. He said this was the first big game he’s ever killed.

“I’m not a hunter; I’m a fisherman,” he said. “It wasn’t something I wanted to do. I wanted to scare him off.”

After his adrenaline slowed down, Landess called the Alaska State Wildlife Troopers. Troopers advised him to skin the bear and bring in the hide, head and feet into the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office. The bear was a male, estimated to be five years old.

Fish and Game area biologist Jeff Selinger said law requires people to bring in the hide and skull and fill out a defense of life and property report. While the bear didn’t get into any food left out, if it has learned from other residences about a food source, a bear can become more persistent, he said.

“It sounds like he tried to scare it off,” Selinger said. “You can do everything right at a residence, but if the bear has learned from other places where to obtain food sources it puts those animals in close proximity around residential areas.”

While bear sightings and reports of bears getting into Dumpsters and chicken coops are common, the number of bear issues on the Kenai Peninsula this year appears to be down. Bears need to put on a third or more of body weight on over the summer to survive hibernation, Selinger said.

He said no bear maulings have been reported this year.

“Bears are tolerant of people in a lot of situations,” he said. “They are either raising their young, eating or sleeping.”

Wildlife Trooper Lieutenant Paul McConnell said the trooper who responded to the incident at Landess’ property found nothing suspicious and the property owner fulfilled his legal requirements. McConnell said he has seen less reports of bears causing problems since the brown bear harvest hunts started a couple years ago from September to the end of May.

Landess said interactions with wildlife are just another aspect of living in Alaska.

“(My encounter) is a reminder of where we live and that everyone should be aware of their surroundings this time of year,” Landess said.

Reach Dan Balmer at daniel.balmer@peninsulaclarion.com

More in News

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, a Soldotna Republican who co-chairs the House Education Committee, speaks in favor overriding a veto of Senate Bill 140 during floor debate of a joint session of the Alaska State Legislature on Monday. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire)
By 1 vote, lawmakers sustain Dunleavy veto of education bill

The bipartisan bill included $680 increase to per-student funding

The Sterling Highway crosses the Kenai River near the Russian River Campground on March 15, 2020, near Cooper Landing, Alaska. (Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Russian River Campground closed for construction

The campground is expected to reopen on June 2

A man fishes in the Kenai River on July 16, 2018, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Peninsula Clarion/file)
Fish and Game announces series of closures and restrictions for king salmon fisheries

Cook Inlet king salmon stocks are experiencing a prolonged period of poor productivity, the department said

Montessori materials sit on shelves in a classroom at Soldotna Montessori Charter School on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Education debate draws state attention to peninsula charter schools

Dunleavy would like to see a shift of authority over charter school approvals from local school districts to the state

The Nikiski Senior Center stands under sunlight in Nikiski, Alaska, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Support available for community caregivers

Nikiski Senior Center hosts relaunched Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program

Flags flank the entrance to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office on Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Dunleavy vetoes bipartisan education bill

Senate Bill 140 passed the House by a vote of 38-2 and the Senate by a vote of 18-1 last month

The Alaska State Capitol on Friday, March 1, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
House passes bill altering wording of sex crimes against children

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer

Ben Meyer and Brandon Drzazgowski present to the Soldotna and Kenai Chambers of Commerce at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska, on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai Watershed Forum gives update on streambank restoration

The watershed forum and other organizations are working to repair habitat and mitigate erosion

The entrance to the Kenai Police Department, as seen in Kenai, Alaska, on April 1, 2020. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai resident arrested on charges of arson

Kenai Police and Kenai Fire Department responded to a structure fire near Mountain View Elementary

Most Read