After 30 years of managing the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary (34 years with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game), Larry Aumiller recently retired from state service. Larry made significant and unique contributions to the Department, to the McNeil River Sanctuary and to worldwide efforts in bear conservation.
Larry’s formative years were spent in Colorado where his grandfather nurtured an interest in the outdoors while fishing in the Rocky Mountains. His interest in bears was kindled by a TV documentary featuring Frank and John Craighead’s Yellowstone grizzly research.
After graduating from Kansas University with a degree in commercial art and a Vietnam-era tour of duty in the military, Larry headed to Alaska in a Volkswagen bug painted in timely psychedelic colors. His interest in fishing led him to King Salmon where he worked several seasons for the divisions of Commercial Fisheries and Sport Fish. While in the Bristol Bay area, he found that he loved the wilderness, long treks and encounters with wildlife. When he was “stuck” in King Salmon, he visited the local dump to observe brown bears and was fascinated by their behavior as they fed and interacted with one another.
Former King Salmon area wildlife biologist Jim Faro noticed Larry’s keen interest in bears and hired him to manage field operations at the McNeil River Sanctuary in 1976. Larry quickly noticed that bears became more tolerant of humans when people were consistent in their activities and behavior. He applied this knowledge by guiding groups of visitors at McNeil River rather than allowing them to wander and interact with bears at random. The result of this consistent human behavior was increased safety and a reduction of threatening encounters with brown bears to almost zero. Larry went on to develop a world-renowned bear-viewing program that is emulated by many bear-viewing and wildlife viewing sites worldwide.
Larry came to the Department without formal biological training but through his careful observations of bears and extensive reading, he developed an amazing understanding of bear behavior widely recognized by bear biologists. Larry’s thousands of hours viewing bears have led to new insights into bear behavior and the process of habituation. His work at McNeil River has helped change people’s understanding and attitudes toward bears and bear encounters. He has co-authored a number of scientific publications and is well-known as a quiet but persistent advocate and spokesman for bear conservation. He was often featured in popular articles, books and documentaries and has shared his incredible images of brown bears in support of bear conservation. Because of his significant contributions to the worldwide efforts to conserve bears, Larry was awarded the Olaus Murie Award by the Alaska Conservation Foundation in 1999.
A visitor to McNeil River once commented that his visit to the sanctuary was an “once-in-a-lifetime experience” and how fortunate Larry was to have that experience day-after-day and year-after-year. Now thirty years later, we wish Larry the best of luck in his pursuit of even more “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences.
The ceremony will be held on May 11, 2008 at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks. For more information, contact the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.