Curious black bear enters JBER commissary in Alaska, eats a peach, leaves without incident

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The commissary at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), Alaska, had an unexpected customer over the July 4th weekend when a bear wandered in and began exploring the store’s produce section.

Video of the visit, captured in a roughly 30-second clip posted to social media, shows the bear checking commissary shelves, munching on a piece of fruit, and then wandering off.

An Air Force official at JBER confirmed that the young black bear seen in the video entered the main exchange shopping mall around 9 a.m. on July 5. The bear entered and left through the store’s automatic sliding doors.

“It found its way down the hall into the Commissary where it helped itself to a peach and left the building,” said Maj. Carly Costello, director of public affairs for the 673rd Air Base Wing.

The video ends with the bear outside the commissary’s closed doors. No people are visible in the footage, which was first posted to a local Facebook group at the base outside Anchorage and later shared by the popular Amn/NCO/SNCO page.

The base’s wildlife program manager determined that the event was “entirely incidental,” and the bear had triggered the building’s automatic doors by “displaying standard, non-confrontational foraging behaviors,” Costello told Task & Purpose.

Wildlife Encounters Not Uncommon in Alaska

Large wildlife wandering into buildings via automatic doors is not unusual in Alaska. In 2023, a moose entered through automatic doors into the lobby of an Anchorage medical building, munching on decorative plants as medical workers in scrubs snapped photos. Security eventually shooed the moose away.

The commissary bear left on its own, wandering through the parking lot, Costello said. Conservation Law Enforcement officers who arrived at the scene then coaxed the animal into nearby woods.

The conservation officers on JBER are civilian employees hired by the federal government, she said. Active-duty troops can volunteer to work alongside them.

Alaska is home to approximately 100,000 black bears, which are generally smaller and more prone to excursions into urban areas than the state’s brown and polar bears. Brown bears forage less in human areas. Polar bears, while far more aggressive, live only in the mostly uninhabited northern coastal regions.

“It is not uncommon for residents or visitors to Alaska to see bears, usually from a safe distance,” according to the state’s Fish and Game Department. “But even if you don’t see a bear, you will never be far from one; Alaska is bear country.”

Bear Safety and Recent Incidents

While majestic, bears can pose a danger to humans. Two soldiers with the 11th Airborne Division were injured in April when they were attacked by a bear during a land navigation exercise at JBER.

Bears can become accustomed to encroaching on residential areas and campgrounds when unsecured food sources are available, Costello said. This can lead to bears losing their fear of humans, creating a public safety threat and, eventually, forcing authorities to kill the bears.

Over the past year, seven bears have had to be put down because they were deemed a danger to humans, she said.

“Lethally removing an animal is never the first choice, and using non-lethal techniques such as rubber bullets, flashbangs or sirens are preferred to discourage habituating behavior,” Costello told Task & Purpose. “Unfortunately, relocation is not always a solution as bears have a very strong homing instinct and will find their way back, potentially find new neighborhoods, or they may be placed unintentionally into another bear’s territory, potentially leading to territorial disputes that often prove fatal.”

New Trash Receptacles Reduce Bear Incidents

The base has seen a drop in bear incidents since introducing bear-resistant dumpsters in May. These dumpsters are built with thicker steel construction and feature interlocking lids and spring-loaded locking bars, Costello said.

Authorities on the base have also released a video instructing personnel on how to use the trash receptacles and take other precautions to prevent dangerous encounters and “keep bears wild.”

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