"The isolated population of brown bears on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula is in trouble. Just last year alone, 18 percent of the adult female bears were killed. And this year, during the spring hunt, an additional 10 percent of the population was taken out.
In a matter of years, such high kill rates could quickly lead to a collapse of the Kenai brown bears' population. Adding to the concern, a major human-started fire burned across more than 300 square miles of the Kenai this spring. It tore through the refuge, stressed and even killed spring cubs and sows, and drove bears into contact with humans, which could prove lethal for the bears.
The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge took a stand last year to protect this rare and distinct subspecies of Ursus arctos by ending its hunting season early.
Urge the refuge to close its lands to brown bear hunting once more to give these bears a fighting chance at survival in their ancestral home."
