Conservation officers are asking for help identifying the person who shot and killed a black bear and abandoned its carcass on May 17.
Residents reported hearing a gunshot between 1 and 3 p.m. and an ATV near the CCC road along the South Klondike Highway, not far from Kookatsoon Lake.
Residents discovered the carcass of a mature, male brown-phased black bear.
The gunshot wound does not resemeble what’s found in self-defence cases, said conservation officer Aaron Koss-Young.
While it’s legal to hunt bears with hunting permits, it is illegal under the Yukon Wildlife Act to abandon the entire carcass.
“If you shoot a bear, you have at the very minimum to take the hide, the skull of the bear and the claws on the carcass and report that kill to the Environment Yukon office,” said Koss-Young.
Bears are also sometimes hunted for their meat. “In this case, everything was wasted.”
Violations of the Yukon Wildlife Act carry a maximum of $50,000 in fines, one year imprisonment or both.
Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPP Line at 1-800-661-0525, or conservation officers at 667-8005.