Hide Fanciers Enjoy Alaska’s Bear Market

Bill Slavin wanted something out of the ordinary to hang inside his new cabin in Alabama. An Alaska grizzly bear would be ideal, he decided; it would exude the mystique of the wild far north.

Grizzly hides are virtually impossible to buy in the Lower 48, where threatened species are aggressively protected. They’re generally not for sale in Alaska either, Slavin was disappointed to learn during a business trip to Anchorage last year.

Then he heard about Alaska’s annual hide, horn and antler auction--one of only two exceptions to a state law that prohibits the sale of bear hides. The Anchorage event was held outdoors last month under a steady snowfall. The auction is a highlight of the city’s yearly Fur Rendezvous, a 10-day winter celebration.

Slavin successfully bid $775 for a six-foot grizzly with the head and paws attached, and $250 for a black bear hide. For another $1,500, a taxidermist will tan the skins, stuff the heads and turn the hides into bear rugs for Slavin’s walls.

“I’m kicking myself for not buying another grizzly,” he said. “It’s a real Alaska bear, and that’s a major attraction. We sure don’t see anything like this in Alabama.”

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game sponsors the sale, as well as a smaller auction in Fairbanks in March, under a law that allows the state to sell skins and trophies as surplus goods. The bears were killed in self-defense, by natural causes, by poachers, by vehicles and by wildlife officials responding to nuisance-bear calls.

“These animals died needlessly in some cases,” said Michael McDonald, Fish and Game’s assistant wildlife-management coordinator. “The biggest good that comes out of this is that the hides can be used. They don’t have to be destroyed.”

Alaska law allows the killing of brown bears--as grizzlies are known in parts of Alaska--and black bears by people who are properly licensed to hunt during specific seasons. In Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, hunting of grizzlies is prohibited because those populations are designated as threatened. Wyoming and Idaho allow hunters to sell hides of the more plentiful black bears, if they are legally taken.

British Columbia allows hunters to sell hides of grizzlies lawfully killed, according to Alex Dabrowski, spokesman for the provincial Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection. The agency also sells surplus grizzly and other wildlife hides at public auctions.

Alaska prohibits hunters from selling any bear parts, despite the state’s plentiful bear numbers. The state grants special permits to taxidermists for the sale of bear hides when customers don’t pick up their orders. The permits also are granted to bankruptcy trustees to pay off debts, to estate executors to unload unwanted heirlooms and to the state Department of Fish and Game to get rid of excess property.

The agency must first make the skins available for educational purposes, donating the hides to museums and schools that want them, McDonald said.

The rest are available to the highest bidders.

“A lot of people just want an Alaska theme,” auctioneer Ron Alleva said. “It’s far less expensive than going on a bear hunt, which can cost up to $16,000. And for a lot of people, it’s better to say, ‘I didn’t shoot the bear; I recycled it.’ ”

Most of the proceeds supplement Fish and Game programs and reimburse the agency for preserving the hides.

Idaho fishing guide Ken Burkholder was among the 250 people attending the Anchorage auction, held in a downtown parking lot. The Boise resident wanted some grizzly hides for his pet project: tying trout flies with the brown hair.

Burkholder, who usually relies on taxidermists for bear scraps, bought five hides. Altogether, dozens of brown bear and three black bear hides were auctioned off, along with the skins of musk oxen, sheep, fox and otter. Everything was piled high on tables and on the ground, unprotected from the falling snow. Dozens of moose antlers and caribou racks lined the shelves of an open trailer.

“It was about the strangest thing I’ve ever been involved in,” Burkholder said. “There were all these Jeremiah Johnson types milling around, wearing lynx faces on their heads, wolf faces, beaver hats. It was a weird juxtaposition against the backdrop of a modern city.”

Burkholder is getting the hides tanned by taxidermist Tim VandenToorn, who has processed dozens of auction bears since 1990. Because most of the hides have the face and paws attached, they can even be made into life-size models--an exhaustive job that runs between $4,000 and $6,000 for grizzlies.

“Some people think you can’t find a decent hide there, but they’re wrong,” VandenToorn said. “I’ve tanned a lot of those bears over the years and have seen some excellent hides.”

Most winning bids for brown bears ranged between $400 and $2,700, slightly higher than in previous sales. But bidders were competing for just 41 hides--an unusually low number. Most years yield 80 to 100 brown bears, McDonald said.