Trump's son gets permit allowing him to hunt Alaska grizzly bear

Donald Trump Jr. hasbeen granted the right to hunt a grizzly bear in northwesternAlaska near the Bering Sea town of Nome, a state official saidon Friday.

The son of U.S. President Donald Trump was one of threepeople who applied for 27 spots for non-resident hunters targeting grizzlies in a designated region of northwesternAlaska's Seward Peninsula, said Eddie Grasser, the wildlifeconservation director for the Alaska Department of Fish andGame.

The state conducts periodic drawings for permits to huntbears, caribou, moose and other animals in various regions. Winners are chosen by a lottery, and there are typically manymore applications than hunting tags awarded.

"We get thousands of applications," Grasser said. Whetheranyone wins, he said, comes down to "pure chance, luck of thedraw."

But in the case of the bear-hunt permit that the president'sson won, there was little competition. Twenty-four tags forhunting bears in that region went unclaimed, Grasser said.

Winners of the state's latest hunting-permit drawings wereannounced on Friday.

To follow through with the Nome-area bear hunt, Trump mustpay a $1,000 non-resident tag fee and buy a $160 non-residenthunting license, Grasser said.

The president's eldest son is an avid hunter and has madeseveral trips to hunt in Alaska and Canada.

He is scheduled to come to Alaska later this year to huntdeer and ducks.

The Safari Club this month raffled off a $150,000 seven-day"dream hunt" expedition with Trump Jr. The raffle winner got theright to accompany the president's son on a yacht traveling inNovember along coastal areas of the Tongass National Forest.