2026年5月7日 / 美国东部时间上午6:50 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
一名法官周三裁定，阿拉斯加野生动物官员可恢复射杀黑熊和棕熊的行动，包括从直升机上开展猎杀，以此帮助恢复一个曾是阿拉斯加原住民猎手重要食物来源的驯鹿群。
两个环保组织——阿拉斯加野生动物联盟和生物多样性中心——试图叫停该计划，等待其合法性诉讼的审理结果。但高等法院法官阿道夫·泽曼表示，这些组织未能证明州政府在批准该计划时没有合理依据。
此次裁决的时机十分关键：阿拉斯加州西南部的马尔查特纳驯鹿群即将开始产仔。幼崽极易成为熊或狼的猎物。
州政府官员认为，猎杀熊的计划对帮助驯鹿群恢复至关重要。该驯鹿群曾每年为数十个社区的自给猎手提供约4770头驯鹿，数量峰值达到约19万头。
但驯鹿种群在20世纪90年代末和21世纪初开始减少，到2019年仅剩约1.3万头。根据阿拉斯加州鱼类和狩猎部的数据，去年该种群数量估计约为16280头。自2021年起，该区域已禁止狩猎。
根据环保组织的诉讼文件，2023年至2024年期间，州政府射杀了180头熊，其中大多数为棕熊，去年又射杀了11头。阿拉斯加野生动物联盟的数据显示，2023年不到一个月的时间里，州政府从空中猎杀了99头熊，其中包括20头幼崽。
这些组织辩称，阿拉斯加狩猎委员会去年在没有掌握熊种群数量和可持续性关键数据的情况下，批准恢复该计划。
生物多样性中心阿拉斯加分部主任库珀·弗里曼在一份声明中表示，这些组织希望看到驯鹿群繁荣发展，“但州政府根本未能证明无节制地猎杀熊将帮助我们实现这一目标”。
“我们必须停止这种对州政府有限资源的可耻浪费，基于科学开展工作，保护我们所有的野生动物，”弗里曼说。
州政府律师表示，官员们在通过该计划时，已“认真审视”了与熊数量相关的因素。阿拉斯加估计有10万头黑熊和3万头棕熊。
“该种群在低数量状态下持续存在，但自2023年以来开始呈现积极复苏态势，当时产仔季开始移除熊，”他们在一份法庭文件中写道。
代表狩猎委员会和鱼类和狩猎部的阿拉斯加州法律部发言人萨姆·柯蒂斯通过电子邮件表示，该部门欢迎泽曼的裁决“允许该管理计划在即将到来的驯鹿产仔季继续实施，这对驯鹿群恢复至关重要”。
“从科学记录来看，继续该计划是合理的，”柯蒂斯说。
代表环保组织的阿拉斯加受托人律师事务所发言人麦迪逊·格罗夫纳通过电子邮件表示，该律所正在审查裁决，“将考虑所有可行选项”。
该计划一直是持续诉讼的焦点。去年，在阿拉斯加野生动物联盟此前提起的一起案件中，一名法官认定该计划的通过程序存在缺陷，并得出结论称州政府缺乏熊种群可持续性的数据。
州政府实施的紧急法规随后被推翻。随后官方宣布了围绕重新授权该计划的公开听证程序，狩猎委员会于去年7月批准了该计划。
据阿拉斯加野生动物联盟称，2020年一组州生物学家确定，该驯鹿群数量下降的主要原因是疾病和食物短缺，“熊捕食甚至未进入马尔查特纳驯鹿群死亡原因的前三名”。
“我们担心阿拉斯加的大型猎物管理已经变成了这样一种过程：为野生有蹄类动物设定种群目标，依据的是公众需求而非栖息地承载力，这助长了不可持续的管理方式，”该联盟在一份立场文件中写道。
Wildlife agents can kill bears from helicopters to protect caribou in Alaska, judge rules
May 7, 2026 / 6:50 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Alaska wildlife agents can resume shooting and killing black and brown bears — including from helicopters — as part of a plan to help recover a caribou herd that was once an important source of food for Alaska Native hunters, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Two conservation groups, the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity, sought to halt the program while their lawsuit challenging its legality plays out. But Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman said the groups had failed to show that the state acted without a reasonable basis for approving the plan.
The timing of the ruling is important: The Mulchatna caribou herd in southwest Alaska is expected to begin calving soon. The babies are particularly susceptible to being eaten by bears or wolves.
State officials see the bear-killing program as important to helping the caribou herd recover. The herd, which once provided up to about 4,770 caribou a year for subsistence hunters from dozens of communities, peaked at around 190,000 animals.
But the caribou population began declining in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and by 2019 numbered around 13,000 animals. Last year, the population was estimated around 16,280, according to the state Department of Fish and Game. Hunting has not been allowed since 2021.
The state killed 180 bears from 2023 to 2024, most of them brown bears, plus 11 more last year, according to the conservation groups’ lawsuit. According to the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, 99 bears, including 20 cubs, were killed by the state from the air in less than a month in 2023.
The groups argue that the Alaska Board of Game last year authorized reinstating the program without key data on the bears’ population numbers and sustainability.
Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement the groups want to see the caribou herd thrive, “but the state simply hasn’t shown that the unrestrained killing of bears is going to help us get there.”
“We need to stop this disgraceful waste of the state’s limited resources and work based on science to protect all our wildlife,” Freeman said.
State attorneys have said that officials took a “hard look” at factors related to bear numbers in adopting the plan. Alaska is home to an estimated 100,000 black bears and 30,000 brown bears.
“The herd has persisted at low numbers but started showing a positive response since 2023, when bear removal during calving seasons began,” they wrote in a court filing.
The Alaska Department of Law welcomed Zeman’s decision “to allow this management program to continue during the upcoming caribou calving season, a crucial time for herd recovery,” spokesperson Sam Curtis said by email. The department represents the board and Department of Fish and Game.
“Continuing this program makes sense in light of the scientific record,” Curtis said.
Caribou traverse a ridgeline on Aug. 11, 2025, in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Becky Bohrer/AP
Attorneys with Trustees for Alaska, representing the conservation groups, are reviewing the ruling and “will consider all available options,” spokesperson Madison Grosvenor said by email.
The program has been the subject of ongoing litigation. A judge last year, in a case previously brought by the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, found fault with the process in which it was adopted and concluded the state lacked data on bear sustainability.
Emergency regulations implemented by the state were later struck down. A subsequent public process was announced surrounding plans to reauthorize the program, which the board did last July.
According to the Alaska Wildlife Association, a group of state biologists in 2020 determined that the main reasons for the herd’s decline were disease and a lack of food and “bear predation isn’t even in the top three identified causes of mortality among the Mulchatna herd.”
“We are concerned that big game management in Alaska has become a process whereby population objectives for wild ungulates are established based on public demand rather than on habitat capacity, promoting unsustainable management,” the alliance says in a position paper.
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