ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – An orphaned black bear cub that had been frequenting a homeless camp in Mountain View for months was captured by Alaska Fish and Game officials Friday and taken to the Alaska Zoo.

Residents of the camp said earlier this summer that the bear was a frequent visitor there and was regularly petted and fed.

Fish and Game was able to scoop up the 60-pound male bear and put it in a kennel, according to Sam Lavin, Curator at the zoo.

Lavin said humans did everything wrong when it comes to interacting with wildlife, but the cub was lucky because there was a placement available for it at an out-of-state zoo.

“The other option was that it was going to be euthanized because it was getting used to people,” Lavin said. “And if it starts approaching people, that’s a bad deal.”

For now, the cub is resting in the zoo infirmary where it is being treated for some minor health problems.

“We kind of gave it a quiet corner to sort of settle in and acclimate,” she said. “Pretty soon we’ll give it a yard and it will start getting used to visitors on the trail, and once it’s healthy and old enough, we will send it off to its new home.”

The Alaska Zoo doesn’t disclose which facilities animals are being sent to; they leave that for the receiving zoo to announce, but Lavin said she’s certain the cub will enjoy its new home.

“Alaska black bears, no matter where they go, they get spoiled,” she said.

The cub should be out of the infirmary in a day or two, according to Lavin, and then on public display. It’s likely to be at the Alaska Zoo for another month.

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will keep in place protections against potential oil and gas development and mining claims on 28 million acres of federal land across Alaska, the federal government said Tuesday.

The lands were protected from such development in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The Trump administration took steps to remove the protections, an effort supported by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.

But the Biden administration said it found legal flaws in the previous administration’s effort, leading to a new environmental review to determine the best use of the lands.

Haaland signed the decision Friday, following an environmental review and public input. A new public land order will retain the protections.

“Continuing these essential protections, which have been in place for decades, will ensure continued access and use of these public lands now and in the future,” Haaland said in a statement from the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the lands.

Dunleavy and Alaska’s congressional delegation have not yet commented on the decision.

The protected lands are spread across Alaska. They’re about the size of Pennsylvania, collectively. In Western Alaska, they’re in the western Interior, Seward Peninsula and Bristol Bay regions. They’re also located in Southcentral Alaska and in eastern Alaska.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, the agency received 15,000 public comments for the draft review, overwhelmingly favoring the protections.

The environmental review found that revoking any of the protections would likely harm subsistence hunting and fishing in dozens of Alaska Native communities that would lose federal subsistence priority over certain lands, the agency said. Wildlife, vegetation and permafrost would also be negatively impacted, it found.

Conservation groups and some Alaska Native groups on Tuesday praised the decision.

More than 2 million acres of the protected lands encompass Crooked Creek, the proposed mine site for the Donlin Gold mine, in the Kuskokwim River system, according to a statement from the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition. The lands also connect important migratory routes for both salmon and caribou, the statement said.

“Secretary Haaland’s decision today is an important step toward a future full of healthy lands, waters, and people who thrive on wild salmon, waterfowl, other migratory animals, and seasonal plant life,” said Anaan’arar Sophie Swope, executive director of Mother Kuskokwim.

The decision does not impact land available for selection by eligible individuals under the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans Land Allotment Program, the agency said.

The Biden administration has taken other major actions to limit development in Alaska, such as implementing strong protections for most land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and rejecting a federal right-of-way for a 200-mile road to the Ambler mineral district in Northwest Alaska.

But in a controversial move, the administration last year approved ConocoPhillips’ giant Willow oil project in the petroleum reserve.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

An Alaska Airlines flight bound for Oakland, California, from Seattle had to turn around Sunday afternoon following an engine issue, according to reports. 

Alaska Airlines Flight 1240, operated on a Boeing 737-700 according to flight tracking website FlightAware, took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 12:24 Pacific Daylight Time. In just over an hour, it returned.

A statement from Alaska Airlines to several media outlets said the turnaround was due to the engine on the plane’s left wing shutting down. 

“It almost felt like when you run over something with a car,” passenger Dabney Lawless told local TV station KIRO. Her 13-year-old son saw smoke outside the plane, and she noticed people on the plane reaching out to loved ones.

ALASKA AIRLINES AND HAWAIIAN AIRLINES MERGER CLEARS REGULATORY HURDLE, WILL NOW BE REVIEWED BY DOT

“My son was definitely telling me that he loved me and that [I] was a good mom, and it was very much preparing for a potential crash but also knowing well, it could be okay,” she said. 

Neither Alaska Airlines nor Boeing responded to a FOX Business inquiry, but multiple media outlets cited an airline statement that credits the crew for “landing safely without incident.” 

“We worked to take care of our guests and accommodate their travel to Oakland yesterday afternoon, and we apologize for the inconvenience,” the statement read. 

BOEING RESPONDS AFTER BEING REBUKED BY NTSB FOR SHARING DETAILS OF ALASKA AIRLINES DOOR BLOWOUT INVESTIGATION

A Boeing Co. 737-700 aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines Inc. at Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank, California, on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate what happened. 

A different aircraft got passengers to Oakland later in the evening, FlightAware shows. 

Alaska Airlines is in the process of trying to merge with Hawaiian Airlines. 

Elizabeth Lund, Boeing senior vice president of quality, speaks to the gathered media in front of a slide detailing the plug door blow-out that occurred on Jan. 5, 2024 on Alaska Airlines flight 1282, at the Boeing Renton Factory on June 25, 2024 in (Jennifer Buchanan / POOL / AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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The company made headlines earlier this year when a Boeing 737-9 MAX door plug blowout occurred during one of their flights in January. 

Earlier this summer, Boeing was rebuked by the NTSB for sharing details about the investigation into the matter during a media briefing by Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president of quality for Boeing commercial airplanes. She is also chair of the Enterprise Quality Operations Council.