The Boone and Crockett Club has officially named an Alaskan grizzly taken in 2013 as the largest of its kind ever taken by a hunter.
Larry Fitzgerald took the huge bruin near his home in Fairbanks, which Richard Hale, the chairman of the Boone and Crockett Club’s Records of North American Big Game committee, thinks is a pretty odd place to take an animal of that size.
“One would think that a relatively accessible area, with liberal bear hunting regulations to keep populations in line with available habitat and food, would be the last place to find one of the largest grizzly bears on record,” he told Billings Gazette.
Hale added that, “Grizzly populations are doing well across all their ranges. That includes populations in the Lower 48 states that are currently federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, but will soon be up for delisting and management authority turned over to the watchful eye of state wildlife managers.”
Fitzgerald’s bear measures 27-6/16, just 7/16 of an inch shy of becoming the world record. That bear (skull) was found in 1976.
Fitzgerald took his bear by spot and stalk even though baiting was allowed in the area at the time.