Dna Tests Planned On Bear Parts Wildlife Agents Will Use Technology To Prove Ukrainian Poaching Bears

Wildlife agents plan to use technology made famous in the O.J. Simpson trial to prove a Ukrainian immigrant poached bears in northeastern Washington.

Gallbladders and other bear parts found in Nikolay Senchenko’s Spokane Valley home will be tested at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lab in Ashland, Ore., said Washington wildlife agent Ted Potter.

The sophisticated tests will determine whether the animals were black bears or federally protected grizzlies, and whether their DNA matches tissue samples agents collected from three illegal snares in remote Pend Oreille County.

Meanwhile, the number of bears agents suspect Senchenko of killing has grown to at least five. And a cub may have been left to die when its mother was trapped.

Wildlife agents say a carcass they recovered during a two-year investigation was a black bear sow. The hunter who found the dead bear hanging in a snare told agents he heard the unmistakable sound of a cub bawling in the woods.

“It’s possible she had a 1-year-old cub,” said Ted Holden, an agent with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. He doubts a bear that age could survive alone.

“All a bear’s survival instincts are learned from the mother,” Holden said.

In addition to the carcass, found last October, agents twice this summer found hair and other indications of kills at snares. Tissues from those samples will be used in the DNA tests.

Holden said Senchenko had a fresh hide and parts from two bears in his Isuzu Trooper when he was arrested last week near the Canadian border. Those parts couldn’t have come from the bears killed earlier, he said.

Senchenko, 45, who became a U.S. citizen in March, claims he was hunting bears legally, but had not notched his bear tag as required by law. Also, hunters are limited to one bear a year.

Since the arrest, agents have checked the three snares they’ve been watching for two years, but found no sign of a kill. For that reason, they strongly suspect there is at least one snare, and probably more, in the woods.

“We suspect there are many other snares out there,” said Holden. “We suspect many other bears have been taken.”

The snares pose a threat not just to bears, but also to hunters. They are powerful enough to break or dislocate a person’s leg, and would leave the victim hanging upside down, five feet off the ground, said Roger Parker, a federal wildlife agent.

Senchenko, 11319 E. Grace, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Agents found incriminating evidence in his car, his backpack and his home, according to a search warrant made public Wednesday.

Agents say the Trooper was stocked with steel cable, eye bolts and other hardware; two plastic Gatorade bottles; a plastic milk jug half filled with honey, and green twine.

The three snares agents found since 1993 were made of cable strung through eyebolts. One was baited with honey in a Gatorade bottle, held in place with green twine.

At Senchenko’s home, agents found two bear hides, three gallbladders, 28 claws and four teeth. His freezer contained 54 packages of bear meat and 20 pounds of fat.

In an interview Monday, Senchenko, who speaks broken English, did not mention shooting any bears this year, but said he legally shot three or four in the last five years. It is not illegal to own bear parts as long as they are legally obtained.

Poachers often sell gallbladders for use as aphrodisiacs in Korea and China. Claws and teeth are used for jewelry.

Senchenko said he uses gallbladders as a home remedy for sore joints.

The carcass that agents recovered last October was missing its head, front claws and gallbladder.

Since September 1993, when a hunter reported the first snare, wildlife agents from Washington, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have gone undercover as grouse hunters and used hidden cameras to help identify the suspect.

Agents talked to a man with a thick accent driving Senchenko’s Trooper near one of the snares. One man videotaped at another snare carried an SKS assault rifle, the same type of gun Senchenko was carrying when arrested.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BEAR SNARES Wildlife agents ask anyone who finds snares to leave them alone, note the location and call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 928-6050 or the poaching hotline, (800) 47-POACH. The snares could injure people or wildlife.