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Flintlock Regular Member 
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Most Alaskan's that spend a fair amount of time in the wilderness realize that the time may, and probably will, come that they will come into contact with bears, moose, wolves, and other critters at close range. Most of these encounters will go without incident, but occasionally, encounters do turn into life-threatening situations and cause us to at least consider that we don't only carry for self-preservation against two-legged scumbags but also the four-legged kind as well. In the last five years I have personally noticed increased bear attack articles all over the state. Detailed documentation of these encounters is much more prevalent these days as well. I'd enjoy this thread being an ongoing compilation of articles, news releases, and personal ecounter stories that are relavent to OC and/or life and death situations where a four-legged critter caused you or someone else to think about or actually having to use a firearm or some other weapon in self-defense. I'll start... Last summer I had five encounters with Alaskan wildlife. First, hiking with my brother on a trail call the Dome on the outskirts of Anchorage. Species was a black bear that was heading up the trail from the river and veered a corner to our surprise about 30 feet away and coming our way. He was large for a blackie. My brother and I were unarmed. (that will never happen again). Bear turned and headed back the other way. Nothing bad happened, but we exited quickly after he was out-of-sight. 2nd, I was hiking alone on the Rainbow Peak Trail in July. I had a firearm in a chest holster, small pack, and trekking poles. About 300 yards up the trail, it was overgrown and difficult to see very far ahead ( not good). Suddenly through the vegetation I see a very large brown bear ahead of me quartering away at about 30 feet (he was massive). He was blocking the trail (I was concerned because bears have killed moose on the trails at McHugh Creek not far away and attacked visitors in the past) I was very concerned as he didn't seem bothered by my presence. I clanked my poles and reversed course until I was far enough away to start scrambling back to the vehicle. I warned some would-be hikers before I left. Third was a moose encounter. I was hiking alone on the Powerline Pass Trail when a young bull came out of nowhere and started galloping towards me at 50 feet away. I started taking backward steps, dropped my poles, and put my hand close to my Balckhawk Serpa and prepared to draw. At the last possible moment he veered away and continued up the hill toward Flat Top right when I was about to draw and fire. A little farther down the trail, I realized he had just been kicked out of a moose convention where about 8 bulls were hanging out near the trail and laying in the grass. 4th was another moose encounter. My friend and I were coming back from hiking the McHugh Creek Trail and a strange grey colored moose was standing in a small creek near the trail. As we tried to pass, he started stomping the ground as if to charge from 20 feet. I was unbuckling my chest holster and grabbing my weapon when my friend grabbed me and moved me behind a tree. We then made a quick exit to the parking lot. Last was another moose encounter. I was hunting during the rut in September in the interior. Two bulls had just finished fighting as my father and I were making our stalk. One was a legal bull, the other was not. As we got close, we could here one grunting and thrashing about (angry) and coming our way. We stopped, not knowing which one it was. As he crested a small hill about 10 yards away from us (he was the smaller one), I lifted my rifle and the moose sensed something was wrong and stopped. He was now less than 10 yards away and could have driven us into the tundra if he wanted to. I clicked the safety off my rifle and prepared to fire in defense of life and limb. He finally scented us and bolted the other direction. I was stunned. The adrenaline was flowing on all these encounters and I feel lucky to have not gotten munched and/or stomped last year. I learned from all of them and am glad I didn't have to shoot any of them to survive. Had plenty of other encounters over the course of the year but none of them were even close to me thinking about drawing and defending myself. Please share your stories and any news releases... Last edited on Mon Apr 21st, 2008 05:01 pm by Flintlock |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Alaska bear attack data from 1900 to 2002. These are just the one's that are reported as the remote villages have most likely had many more encounters and maulings than we will ever imagine. http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/brownbears/attacks/bear-human_conflicts.htm |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Information regarding approximately 60 brown bears and 250 black bears that live in or near the Anchorage bowl. http://dwb.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7342792p-7249123c.html |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Ok, it's apparently starting early this year. Here is the first documented mauling of the year that I have been able to find. Keep your eyes open in the outskirts and wooded areas, the bears are coming out and are looking for stuff to eat. And the moose calves will be born around town in about a month as well... http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8218275 Kenai man mauled by bear by Maria Downey Wednesday, April 23, 2008 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Kenai man is recovering from a bear mauling. Officials say 43-year-old Mark Johnson was attacked by a brown bear sow with two cubs as he left his home Tuesday. Johnson tried to run from the bear, but it caught him biting him several times. He underwent surgery at Central Peninsula Hospital. State wildlife officials say they found several large buckets of garbage on Johnson's porch about 150 yards from where the mauling occurred.  |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Bear spray stops charging sow in Peters Creek. http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/147318.html |
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ScottyT Regular Member 
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Flintlock wrote: Bear spray stops charging sow in Peters Creek. I have a friend who had an accidental discharge with his bear spray while climbing through a narrow crack with a large pack on. Most of it coated his forearm, which burned relentlessly for days. The bit that actually got airborne caused severe irritation of the eyes, lungs and throats of those present. The trigger apparently got caught on something, but we have tried to recreate the conditions (not with a live can) and we can't figure out how i happened exactly. Nasty stuff, but effective. I have heard whispers that it is not nearly as effective against mountain lions, though I have not done any research to back that up... Last edited on Thu Apr 24th, 2008 07:12 pm by ScottyT |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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ScottyT wrote: Flintlock wrote:Bear spray stops charging sow in Peters Creek. Yeah, it's an ongoing debate here in Alaska over the reliability and usefulness of spray. There are many documented cases of it working just fine and others where it had no effect at all. Some bears have pulled the canisters out of packs and bit into it and it exploded in their face to no effect. In fact, there are cases where some bears are actually attracted to the smell which is why they say to not spray it around your camp as it will attract critters that are curious. I have debated the issue at length on several forums in the past and I have personally come to this conclusion... It's not for me. I feel much more comfortable with a handgun, shotgun, or rifle in my hands that I have trained with than some canister of spray that I have never used. It can't be reloaded, the bear has to be really close, and I don't want it to blow back in my face. Alaska has severe weather issues at times, particularly windy conditions, and I don't want that to be the reason I go down in a bear charge. |
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ScottyT Regular Member
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Flintlock wrote:Good points. I am not a fan of the spray either, so I carry a gun in the backcountry (my XD 45, no rifle, I know), I have been stalked by a mountain lion before and it scared me 5h1tless. This same friend also carries a gun, but says he would use his spray first. Seems to me that if the spray doesn't work you wouldn't have time to draw... (though I guess you could spray with your weak hand and have your firearm in your strong hand...) off topic -- I also carry .45 acp shot shells in my survival kit for hunting small game. The penetration and spread is surprisingly adequate for game birds, squirells, rabbits, etc. at up to about 20-30 feet. Last edited on Thu Apr 24th, 2008 08:02 pm by ScottyT |
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Sa45auto Regular Member 
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Flintlock wrote: ScottyT wrote:Flintlock wrote:Bear spray stops charging sow in Peters Creek. Bear Spray is much the same as mace in humans. If you use it one of the following will happen; 1. Works as designed, all is well. 2. Has no affect....Very Bad 3. Angers the attacker....Very Bad 4. Cross contamination....(You shoot your self as well as the attacker, this is more common than you might think (see above story) due to winds and miss-direction of nozzle in time of stress, and accidents.)....Very Bad 5. You miss everybody. (Wind, improper application and so on)....Very Bad. The way I see it, one out of five is.......Very Bad In my research, on the net, I have found that most of the people who push bear spray, think more of the bears than they do of you.  Last edited on Thu Apr 24th, 2008 08:07 pm by Sa45auto |
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Schofield Regular Member 
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I remember a story shortly before I left for my ill-fated move to Florida where a man was walking his dog on a trail in east Anchorage (if I recall) and was charged by an enraged bear. He heard a sound behind him and all of a sudden there's a wall of fur barreling down the trail at him and his dog. He pulled his .357 revolver from inside his jacket and started firing. It took five shots to make the damnable thing go down and the sixth didn't even kill it. Fish & Wildlife had to use a slug from a shotgun to finally put the bear out if its misery. Attacks can happen right around Anchorage, something to keep in mind. No one ever wished they had less gun in a fight. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Schofield wrote: I remember a story shortly before I left for my ill-fated move to Florida where a man was walking his dog on a trail in east Anchorage (if I recall) and was charged by an enraged bear. He heard a sound behind him and all of a sudden there's a wall of fur barreling down the trail at him and his dog. He pulled his .357 revolver from inside his jacket and started firing. It took five shots to make the damnable thing go down and the sixth didn't even kill it. Fish & Wildlife had to use a slug from a shotgun to finally put the bear out if its misery. Attacks can happen right around Anchorage, something to keep in mind. No one ever wished they had less gun in a fight. Without a doubt. They can be encountered near Muldoon, hillside, and on the Campbell Airstrip Trails. Not to mention Eagle River, etc. Here is a post from today's AP: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A study finds that 1 of the busiest avenues for grizzly bears runs right through a popular summer destination along Campbell Creek in Anchorage. Biologists with the Department of Fish and Game say they knew the area was popular with bears, but were surprised to find out just how many were hanging out along the stream. This is from today's ADN: Three dozen brown bears are hanging in and around the Elmore road area during the summers.. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/389904.html Last edited on Tue Apr 29th, 2008 07:30 pm by Flintlock |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8247002 Dog kills Fort Yukon child by Maria Downey Tuesday, April 29, 2008 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Fort Yukon toddler was attacked and killed by a neighbor's dog. Fort Yukon Police say the boy wandered into a neighbor's dog lot Monday and was mauled to death. Officer Chris Inderrieden says the boy, who would have been 2 next month, apparently approached the dog as it was eating. The boy's father says he briefly left the boy outside to get something inside the house when he came out he found the baby lying dead in the dog lot.
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Baradium Regular Member
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Flintlock wrote: http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8218275 This is why we don't run from predators. Even if they weren't going to go after you before, they sure will when you act like they're supposed to... |
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Tomahawk Regular Member 
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Flintlock wrote: http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8247002 That's a horrible story. I'd hate to be that guy, I couldn't live with myself after that. I'd probably go on a dog-killing spree, too.
Ding! Ding! Ding! I think we have a winner! I've always thought this, but never been able to put it this way. Bear spray is always pushed by people who hate guns and hug trees and such, and now I know why. I guess my only wildlife encounter stories are fairly benign. I've run across several poisonous snakes in the mountains over the years, mostly copperheads, but at least one timber rattler. The rattler scared the crap out of me, but once you realize you are out of striking range the danger has passed and you can relax and examine the critter from a safe distance. Once when I was like 12 I scared up a white tail buck out of some tall grass in the woods and he jumped out onto the trail almost right on top of me, but as soon as he saw where I was he turned and bolted in the other direction. No bears yet (knock on wood). Last edited on Sun May 4th, 2008 11:47 pm by Tomahawk |
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Agent19 Regular Member 
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Yes, the dog killed the boy but it is the fathers fault, he left the boy/child unattended.http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8247002 Before he kills any dog he should kill himself, it is his fault. Children shouldn't be left unattended, they are curious and will wander off and could get into trouble. As a parent of young children I feel for him.  Substitute dog and gun.The boy found a gun and shot himself. Is it the guns fault or the Dads? Quote, from Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson movie Death Hunt, "Hurt my fighting dog and you'll be nothing but a sack of guts." I would just remove the fighting part even though I own breeds of dogs typically used for fighting. More on topic. Once a had a Buck charge me, had to hop a chain link fence to escape. Place Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Last edited on Mon May 5th, 2008 06:36 pm by Agent19 |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Agent19 wrote: Once a had a Buck charge me, had to hop a chain link fence to escape. Some would laugh, but I have seen film where people got their ass wooped by deer. During the rut, they can be very aggressive and dangerous. Here in Alaska, moose are a common sighting and it can be an issue (I have been charged myself). Just as many or more people are killed or stomped by them, than bears or anything else. NATGEOHD is my source for that stat...  |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Breaking news from KTUU Channel 2 Home invasion by bear on hillside http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=8344175 by Leyla Santiago May 18, 2008 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An Anchorage family had quite the fright Saturday night coming home to find a bear rummaging through their house. "My leather couch is torn up," said Hillside homeowner David Tisch. "My kitchen is torn up." Tisch said he left his house for about half an hour and found a bear -- and $500 to $1,000 in damages -- when he returned. "My wife says, 'There's a bear in the house. There's a bear in the house,'" Tisch said. "And (my neighbor) Richard and I came from his place, grabbed the firearm and had opened the front door and had no other choice at the time other than to dispatch the barrel." "It's an unfortunate circumstance that any animal has to be killed," he added. Wildlife Trooper Joe Whitton says something like this is more likely to happen this time of year with limited food. "Salmon aren't running yet and they're easily attracted to the scent of garbage," Whitton said. A bear cane can break into a home and head straight to fridge, Whitton said, just because they're smart. "Bears are probably one of the most diligent animals out there," he said. "They can figure out how to open up a small can of coffee take the lid off without destroying the whole can." "Keep trash picked up until the last minute," Whitton recommended. "Keep it secured if you can." Those who negligently feed bears or other wildlife can be fined $310. The Hillside family says they try to follow up all the tips. "I don't put trash cans out, I take my garbage to the dump," Tisch said. "We don't have bird feeders. We don't have dog food outside." And their dog wasn't even enough to deter the intruder. Also worth mentioning: The family spotted another bear a few hours later. And Whitton saw another bear near Muldoon. It's a reminder that you may live in a city, but you're really in bear country. Contact Leyla Santiago at lsantiago@ktuu.com |
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Rabid SA-XD Regular Member 
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i worry about that here where i live in peters creek also |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.adn.com/kenai/story/410494.html Two grizzlies shot, killed in Kenai area THREAT: Residents were protecting themselves, property in shootings.  The Associated Press (05/19/08 00:28:23) KENAI -- Two Kenai Peninsula grizzly bears have died this spring at the hands of residents defending life or property. The bear deaths follow a mauling of a jogger by a bear sow with two cubs April 18 in Kenai. The first bear killed was a sub-adult female grizzly on May 4 at a home on Funny River Road. Jeff Selinger, area management wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the bear was a repeat offender. "It had gotten into a freezer on more than one occasion and the homeowner had taken a lot of precautions to keep bears out of the freezer, so it was justified," he said. The second shooting took place Tuesday off Crooked Creek Road in Kasilof. "A man was walking his dog when a bear came out and he felt threatened so he shot it," Selinger said. The incident is under review by the department. Selinger said May seems to be a typical time of year for the first defense of life and property shootings on the Peninsula. On May 1, 2006, a sub-adult male brown bear was shot at the Solid Rock Bible Camp. The first shooting last year took place during the first week of May when a grizzly charged a lone man hunting for moose antlers in Ninilchik. "Bears come out and they're lethargic at first, but by now they're moving around," he said. "Moose calves haven't dropped yet though, so it's a lean time of year for bears. They go to where food is at, and often get shot." Several other Kenai Peninsula bears have had contact with humans. On May 9, a grizzly got into garbage at a home in the Mackey Lake Road area. On Tuesday, a Ninilchik man shot at a bear getting into his chicken pen, which had no electric fencing. He hit the bear in the neck with bird shot from his .410 shotgun, Selinger said. "We do not recommend doing that. If you're going to shoot at a bear, shoot to kill, not to wound," he said. On Wednesday, a sow with one cub got into a freezer in Sterling. Selinger said the homeowner did not have measures in place to prevent the bears from gaining access to the food in the freezers, but planned to do so. |
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OC-Glock19 Founder's Club Member 
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Flintlock wrote: Agent19 wrote:Once a had a Buck charge me, had to hop a chain link fence to escape. And in the same vein: Rope a Deer? By Unknown Mar 28, 2007 - 8:07:18 AM I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that since they congregated at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away) that it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, which had seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes my deer showed up, 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end, so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it. It took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and received an education. The first thing that I learned is that while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope with some dignity. A deer, no chance....That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I originally imagined. The only up side is that they do not have as much stamina as many animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death. I managed to get it lined up to back in between my truck and the feeder, a little trap I had set beforehand. Kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and started moving forward, so I could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would I have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head, almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the hound out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that when an animal like a horse strikes at you with their hooves, and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously such trickery did not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all. Besides being twice as strong and three times as evil, the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down. Now when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it doesn't immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are lying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. Now for the local legend. I was pretty beat up. My scalp was split open, I had several large goose eggs, my wrist was bleeding pretty badly and felt broken (it turned out to be just badly bruised) and my back was bleeding in a few places, though my insulated canvas jacket had protected me from most of the worst of it. I drove to the nearest place, which was the co-op. I got out of the truck, covered in blood and dust and looking like I'd just come from a brawl. The guy who ran the place saw me through the window and came running out yelling "what happened!" I have never seen any law in the state of Kansas that would prohibit an individual from roping a deer. I suspect that this is an area that they have overlooked entirely. Knowing, as I do, the lengths to which law enforcement personnel will go to exercise their power, I was concerned that they may find a way to twist the existing laws to paint my actions as criminal. I swear, not wanting to admit that I had done something monumentally stupid played no part in my response. I told him, "I was attacked by a deer." I did not mention that at the time I had a rope on it. The evidence of the attack was all over my body. Deer prints on the back of my jacket where it had stomped all over me and a large deer print on my face where it had struck me there. I asked him to call somebody to come get me. I didn't think I could make it home on my own. He did. Later that afternoon, a game warden showed up at my house and wanted to know about the deer attack. Surprisingly, deer attacks are a rare thing and wildlife and parks was interested in the event. I tried to describe the attack as completely and accurately as I could. I was filling the grain hopper and this deer came out of nowhere and just started kicking me and BIT me. It was obviously rabid or insane or something. EVERYBODY for miles around knows about the deer attack (the guy at the co-op has a big mouth). For several weeks people dragged their kids in the house when they saw deer around and the local ranchers carried rifles when they filled their feeders. I have told several people the story, but NEVER anybody around here. I have to see these people everyday, and as an outsider, a "city folk," I have enough trouble fitting in without them snickering behind my back and whispering there's the ignoramus that tried to rope the deer. |
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GJD Regular Member
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Wow, just yeah....wow. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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I was just charged by a moose! I have been (for real) charged or bluff charged by moose on at least 5 or 6 occassions in my life, but today was the absolute closest I ever came to becoming a bloody stain in the pavement. I was out jogging in my residential neighborhood running along with my IPOD, enjoying myself when I noticed someone or something in my poriferal vision. My jogs are usually short and it's a PITA to carry, so I go unarmed. And in this case, it probably would have done me no-good anyway. As I turned to my right to investigate what I noticed, a full-grown moose at between 4:00 - 5:00 was charging me and was literally just mere feet away.  Because of the IPOD, I didn't hear anything to warn me. I then delivered a startled yell at the beast while I increased speed, and at the last possible moment, it veered away at less than 5 feet from me. For a second, I thought I was finished. She wasn't the largest moose I've ever seen but she was an adult-sized female from what I could tell. As for situational awareness, I believe the animal was either bedded down in a small forested patch in my neighbors yard as I ran by, and it ended up charging me on my way back out of the circle. The moose in the area just gave birth to their young or are still giving birth, so it is a possibility that she was protecting a newborn or she was just irritable.  Either way, it was definitely something I will never forget and is a good way to get the adrenaline flowing or wake you up in the morning, although I do not recommend it.. Stay safe. |
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Rabid SA-XD Regular Member
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goodlesson about carying a small backup peice... |
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akhunter3 Regular Member 
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I see my fair share of moose when I'm running, always kinda worried about that kinda thing happening. Never could get the guts to listen to the ipod while running. Good to hear you made it without any embarrassing hoof prints  Jon |
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Citizen Founder's Club Member
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Flintlock wrote: I was just charged by a moose! Wow!! Talk about aerobic exercise!! By the way, penalty for tactical error. You did not immediately scan the sky for an additional threat from above. Rocky.  Last edited on Fri May 23rd, 2008 04:53 am by Citizen |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Citizen wrote: By the way, penalty for tactical error. You did not immediately scan the sky for an additional threat from above. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Story from May 22nd. A late-season skier almost got toasted by a 1000 pound brown bear on the Near Point Trail. No gun, no spray, no air horn... Brown Bear Charges Last Friday morning I was heading into the mountians for a late season ski trip. Started at Prospect Heights trail head. About an hour up the Near Pt. trail. I dropped my pack to take a break at a nice view spot. Heard some sticks breaking on the hillside across from me. Thought it was my dog. Then I heard branches breaking, figured it was a bear then. Stood up and looked that way expecting to see a wondering black bear, instead I found myself frozen in disblief as I watch the biggest Grizz I have ever seen busrt out of the alder about a hundred yards from me at full sprint strait at me. I heard they can move fast but for the first few seconds it didn't even seem real. I looked around for somewhere to run only to realize there was nowhere to hide. Standing my gound was the only option. No Gun, No bear spray, No air horn. So I stood tall and watched. It came to a halt about 50ft from me on the other side of a small gully. At this point I took three steps toward it in a freaked out attempt to stand my ground. Then we just staired at each other for way to long. Then my dog who was up the trail caught on and let out a bark on his trek to my rescue. The grizz looked up the hill toward the dog then back a me, then back up the hill, then he turned tail and charged off. I watched this 1000 plus pound bear run through alder like it wasen't even there all the way up to the ridge line where it turned for one more look, then over the ridge it went. My dog weights fourty pounds, appearently his bark is worst than his bite. I've made hundreds of solo trip into the Alaskan wild, seen dozens of bears, close and far, but have never experenced anything like this and would be happy if it never happened again. Happy to be alive. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/437047.html Bear killed during second attack in Galena BLACK: Animal showed up in yard and wouldn't leave. By LISA DEMER ldemer@adn.com (06/15/08 02:29:22) The city of Galena is abuzz with its second black bear attack in less than 24 hours, and this time, the bear was shot and killed, Galena police report. This bear was aggressive, police say. It had charged a 14-year-old girl and a man and fought with a dog before resident Howard Beasley stared it down and shot it sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday, according to Galena Police Chief John Millan. No people were injured. Locals believe the bear was preying on moose calves -- veal, to a bear. Galena is a city of nearly 700 people about 270 miles west of Fairbanks on the Yukon River. Beasley, director of the city water plant, said he and his wife had been fishing into the night on Bear Creek, off the Yukon. His wife fell and was hurt, so he took her to the local clinic, then returned to the river to collect the boat. He was just pulling in at home when his wife hobbled out and shouted from the balcony that a neighbor needed help, and fast. "There was a bear in the yard," she told him. "They couldn't get rid of it. They didn't have a gun. It was coming back, and it was getting more aggressive." So he pulled back out, still hauling the boat, to track down that bear. Scared residents started calling the police chief around 1:25 a.m. Millan said in a news release that Galena police respond to bear calls, but the community only has two officers, and there's one vacancy. He was arresting someone for domestic violence when the bear attacks happened Saturday. The teenager was attacked first, according to police. Kids in Galena play outside until all hours in summer, when the sun doesn't set, Beasley said. The neighbor, Christopher Kriska, told police that he heard a noise, went to investigate and was charged by the bear. His dog, Scooby, a pit-bull-and-lab mix, then attacked the bear. They both managed to get inside. But unlike the incident on Friday, when a young bear ran off after tussling with a St. Bernard on a run, this bear wouldn't leave. So it fell to Beasley. "I just happened to see the bear coming out of the woods again," Beasley said. "There's no doubt it saw me. It was only 30 feet away, and it put its head down and huffed up his shoulders like he was getting ready -- was coming out no matter what. I went ahead and popped him with the gun." Beasley said he used a 12-gauge shotgun with slugs to drop the bear. He's hunted grizzly before and this spring got a nice black bear with meat he said is as tasty as beef from Carrs. But the bear Saturday wasn't good for eating, Beasley said. He skinned it, as required, to send the hide, skull and claws to the state Department of Fish and Game. The bear had been eating carrion, along with moose calves, so he disposed of the carcass away from town. Saturday's incident was the first attack by a bear on a person in Galena in at least 30 years, according to police. They wander into town in search of garbage but usually stick to the dump, about five miles out of town. Millan asks anyone who sees a bear in or near town to called Galena police at 656-2177 or troopers at 1-800-811-0911. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Bear attacks Seward mushroom picker class=body by Channel 2 News Staff Tuesday, June 17, 2008 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Seward man says he holds no hard feelings toward a grizzly sow that attacked his companion. Roger Long, 76, helped fend off a grizzly that attacked Jenne Danzl, 54. He says they got too close to the bears in the animals' own home. Long and Danzl on Friday were picking mushrooms in a burned-over area 50 yards from Skilak Lake on the Kenai Peninsula. They were about 20 yards apart when Danzl saw fresh bear scat. Long says that a few moments later, he heard Danzl scream. He looked up and saw two 2-year-old cubs, plus the sow pouncing on his companion. Long says he grabbed a stick and yelled at the bears, which took off. Back at their camp, they realized Danzl had been bitten on the left side of her rib cage and had other punctures. She was treated at Central Peninsula Hospital and released about five hours later. |
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AKRed Regular Member 
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I usually carry Bear Spray and a Powerful Handgun while outdoors. I did not initially mention in Bear country because all of Alaska is bear country. Even in Anchorage many bears are present and are habituated to eating garbage, living in and around human activity etc. and are dangerous. They have personalities like humans. Most just want to be left alone, some are just downright mean. All are unpredictable. Try to make noise so at least the less onerous bears have a chance to move away from you. A high-powered rifle or 12 Gauge shotgun with slugs and/or buckshot would be ideal for protection, but its a little inconvenient to carry one all the time (eg. wading while fishing). I've often heard 30-06 mentioned as a minimum cartridge, but even a 30-30 is more powerful than a handgun. I have had to spray a couple and it worked pretty well. They were Black Bears and not particularly large. I would be afraid to have used it in the same manner on a large Brown Bear. Of course, many people have been mauled and even eaten by relatively small Blackies. If you carry spray be sure it's for bears and test fire it to see how far it works. It's generally much farther than the small sprays designed for humans. It will freeze and freezing/thawing takes a toll on how long it remains good. If you have to spray, try to be upwind. We don't have big cats up here, that one of the other posters mentioned. I would be interested if anyone has ever used Bear spray on problem moose and what the affects were? Last edited on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 02:27 am by AKRed |
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Sonora Rebel Regular Member 
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Bear Country? .454 Casul... Don't leave home without it! Last edited on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 02:45 am by Sonora Rebel |
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sv_libertarian State Researcher 
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So thoughts on a handgun to take up with me? I've got a .357 long barrel security six and am thinking real hard about replacing it with a .41 mag or hot loaded .45LC. I'm leaning more towards a handgun that can take hot .45LC loads with about a 4 inch barrel. |
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murphyslaw State Researcher 
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S&W .500 huraaa |
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sv_libertarian State Researcher
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murphyslaw wrote: S&W .500 huraaaAnd I should add preferebly one that doesn't weigh as much as my mosin nagant!  |
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murphyslaw State Researcher
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they make some nice shoulder slings for them these days. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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sv_libertarian wrote: So thoughts on a handgun to take up with me? I've got a .357 long barrel security six and am thinking real hard about replacing it with a .41 mag or hot loaded .45LC. I'm leaning more towards a handgun that can take hot .45LC loads with about a 4 inch barrel. Myself and at least one other Alaska OCDO forum member carry a Glock 20 in 10mm for bear protection in the wilderness. With the premium loads that Double Tap offers, you are getting low-end .41 magnum power in a full-size Glock platform. Follow-up shots are much easier than with a large, single action pistol, recoil is less and you are still delivering 1300 ft. pounds of energy at the muzzle with each shot and can carry 15+1 in each magazine. It is also much lighter than most large caliber revolvers, which makes a big difference if you are a hiker/backpacker, etc. Not totally ideal as a bear stopping package, but then again, nothing is in a handgun for all purposes. When I am fishing on a bear infested stream, sometimes I carry a short barreled shotgun in a scabbard over my back. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Been away from keeping this thread updated for a while now. There have been so many bear attacks and DLP's that it is almost a full-time job keeping this up-to-date. The bear and moose situation near Anchorage is out-of-control!! |
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murphyslaw State Researcher
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There is no debating the stopping power of a 12ga 3" 1oz slug. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Going to try and start updating this thread.... http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/474892.html Woman recovering after Cooper Landing bear attack KENAI PRINCESS: Victim, 21, is a summer hire from Utah. By JULIA O'MALLEY jomalley@adn.com (07/25/08 04:28:13) Lani Vin Zant picked up her ringing phone in Wasilla late Wednesday night. The only thing on the line was her 15-year-old daughter Andria, sobbing. " 'Mom there's a lady and she was attacked. Dad scared the bear away," Andria choked out. "There's so much blood." Moments before, Vin Zant's husband, Robert, had scared off a brown bear as it attacked Abi Sisk, 21, a Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge housekeeper, working in Alaska for the summer. Sisk was badly mauled and spent Thursday in surgery at Providence Alaska Medical Center. She was listed in critical condition Thursday evening but was expected to survive. Alaska State Troopers said Robert Vin Zant, a gas plant operator for BP in Prudhoe Bay, probably saved her life. Vin Zant and his daughter were rafting on Thursday, but Lani Vin Zant told the story she heard over the phone as it happened. Andria and Robert arrived at the Kenai Princess in Cooper Landing after 10 p.m. on Wednesday, she said. After parking, Robert heard what he thought was laughing in the woods nearby. It quickly turned to screams. He followed the sound. Yards away from the lodge, on a trail, he could make out the hulking form of a brown bear standing on the body of a young woman. The bear had her head in its mouth. WET WITH BLOOD Sisk came to Alaska this summer because she wanted adventure, her father Stan said Thursday by phone from the family home in Logan, Utah. The younger of two children, she worked as a cleaner at a local hospital, saving money for college, singing on Sundays at church. Her parents encouraged her to take the job so she could get out of the small town where she grew up. Just days before, she'd called her parents and complained that she was the only person around who hadn't seen a bear. As soon as he saw what was happening, Vin Zant hollered at his daughter to call 911 and get his gun from the car, Lani Vin Zant said. Andria ran inside the lodge for help and gave her father his gun. Then she called her mom. Mom stayed on the phone with her for an hour. Robert Vin Zant tried to make himself loud and big to get the bear off Sisk, he told his wife. "He put his hands out and came running at the bear as fast as he could. The bear went up on his hind legs looked at him, and then the bear dropped again, back to all fours, like it was contemplating dinner," said Lani Vin Zant. Vin Zant charged the bear again and it ran off. Sisk lay on the ground, her scalp torn and her brown hair wet with blood. PURRING IN THE BUSHES At home in Logan, the Sisks got word that their daughter had been attacked by a bear and had a major scalp injury. Doctors were trying to stop the bleeding. "We were praying at 3, 3:30 in the morning that her life would be spared," Stan Sisk said. Then the phone rang again. It was his daughter. She was groggy but talking. She'd been heading home from a hike, her father said. She bent down to look at a flower. "She heard something purring in the bushes," her father said. Then the bear was on her, ripping into her. She went limp, trying to play dead. The bear let go. She waited. The lodge was so close. She started to move. She hadn't waited long enough. The bear was on her again. That's when Vin Zant heard her scream. 'TELL MY MOM I SAW A BEAR' Dan Michels, the lodge's general manager, got to Sisk within minutes of the attack. It was raining. She was already circled by emergency personnel, who were trying to stop the bleeding from her head. She'd been bitten in the buttocks and leg as well, her father said. A helicopter couldn't get into Cooper Landing because of the crummy weather so Sisk had to go by ambulance to Soldotna where she was flown to Anchorage, Michels said. "Obviously there's going to be some trauma," he said "There was a little bit of shock." Sisk has a beautiful singing voice, Michels said. She would sing while she made beds and people often would stop to listen. She also has a great sense of humor, he said. "Tell my mom I saw a bear," she joked, as the EMTs were taking her away. Sisk's mother flew into Anchorage Thursday, her father said. Abi is expected to be in the hospital for a week at least, Michels said. "She literally had a large portion of her scalp ripped off," her father said. "By the time they got it back on, (the doctor) is dubious whether it's gonna take." WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME Bears are common around the lodge in the summertime, especially at night, Michels said. All the employees go through bear training and, though some trash isn't in bear-proof cans during the day, all trash is locked behind an electric fence at night, he said. Larry Lewis, Fish and Game wildlife technician, walked the trails Thursday with troopers but found no sign of the bear. Cooper Landing has more than its share of human/bear encounters in the summer, in part because of the large number of seasonal visitors and the great bear fishing in the shallow streams off the Kenai River, he said. The bear was likely surprised by Sisk. She was by herself and probably wasn't making a lot of noise, he said. The bear was acting to eliminate a threat. It was a little unusual because Sisk was so close to the busy lodge. " I'm sure she felt safe there, I would have felt safe there, " Lewis said. "It's just a bad situation. It's pretty classic wrong-place, wrong-time." This is the second bear mauling of a seasonal worker at the Kenai Princess in recent memory. In 2005, another 21-year-old employee was grabbed by a bear and dragged, but she fought furiously and escaped injury. Once Abi Sisk was on the way to the hospital, Vin Zant took the phone and talked to his wife. He said he was covered with blood and very shaken, she said. "I heard someone come up to him and thank him for his help. He said he just did what he thought anybody would do." |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/484087.html Eagle River man fights attacking bear to draw CUTS AND BRUISES: He battled bruin to a 'tie' after pitch-black 2 a.m. attack near Meadow Creek. By JAMES HALPIN jhalpin@adn.com (08/05/08 01:26:37) Devon Rees could have played dead. Or run. Instead, he chose to fight the bear that lunged out of the woods near his home in Eagle River on Monday morning. And, though he ended up with a harvest of cuts and bruises, he survived. "I definitely earned my bragging rights boxing a bear," said Rees, 18. "It got me a couple of times, and I got her a good couple of times. I wasn't going to give the bear an easy target." Rees was walking home from a friend's house along VFW Road -- a frontage road that parallels the Glenn Highway -- at about 2 a.m. When he left the paved street for a dirt road that crosses Meadow Creek, he was less than 50 yards from his home at the edge of Chugach State Park. Midway across, he heard a splash down the embankment at the water's edge, perhaps 10 feet away. Probably just some salmon jumping, he thought. The creek, not far from the heart of Eagle River, is a popular king salmon fishery -- for bears, said Jessy Coltrane, assistant Anchorage-area wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The culvert under the road acts as a bottleneck for the migrating fish, making for easy pickings, she said. This late in summer, darkness envelops the woods in the early morning hours. Rees couldn't see a thing. As he continued on, a quick rustle was followed by a brief glint of hair. When the bear barrelled out and tore into him, he tore back. "I was doing the best I could to stay up on my toes and move all around it," Rees said. "I figured my best chance was to fight the best I could, fight the hardest I could to get away." The bear bit into his arms. Scratched his side. Dug into his thighs. Swatted his head. Rees was pumped with adrenaline, masking the pain of teeth and nails sinking into his flesh. He started yelling furiously. He threw elbows and punches into the bruin's head, kicked when he could. As suddenly as the attack began, the bear released him. He didn't wait around. Rees began staggering up the road, shoeless and with pants shredded, calling 911 on his cell phone as he headed toward a nearby fire station. Police arriving on the scene found Rees near the Equipment Direct Rental store, but by that time, the bear was gone, police Lt. Paul Honeman said. "I don't think the bear's any worse for it, but it was probably surprised someone was fighting back," said Honeman, who tallied the brawl as a "tie." Medical personnel gave Rees some morphine for the pain and took him to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where he was treated for cuts, gashes and scrapes to his head, left arm and side, both thighs and waist. He was released at about 6 a.m. Monday with his wounds still open because doctors were afraid of infection. "I'm glad he didn't just lay there and let it eat him," said Rees' mother, Denise Jones. "I'm just glad he's OK. Just glad it's not worse than it is." Fish and Game got on the scene at about 2:45 a.m. but was unable to find the bear, Coltrane said. The type of bear is unknown, but she suspected it was a grizzly based on its actions and because a police officer who lives nearby reported seeing a brown bear sow and cub in the area shortly before the attack. The bear appeared to be acting defensively -- the way one would expect of a sow surprised in the dark, near a salmon stream and possibly with a cub in tow, she said. "It's the same kind of situation that we had earlier this summer with Petra, in the sense that it's dark, a salmon creek, and it's essentially a dark trail," Coltrane said. "The same variables were there." In late June, 15-year-old Petra Davis was severely mauled by a brown bear in Far North Bicentennial Park as she competed in a 24-hour bike race near Campbell Creek. The attack on Rees took place near the route of a proposed trail to connect Eagle River High School with Chugach State Park. Fish and Game has opposed the trail system as planned, saying there would be few worse places to build it in the municipality, and this attack reinforces that, Coltrane said. Recently people have reported seeing bears in the area most every night, said Rees' uncle, R.J. Jones, who lives nearby. A neighbor's chicken coup has been raided, and on Friday, Rees had another brush with bruins, when he was charged while riding his bike. He was not injured in that encounter. "Nobody's ever gotten hurt down here before," Jones said. "We're just lucky it wasn't a little kid. We've got a lot of 5- and 7-year-old kids that live around here and somebody could have got really hurt." There are a number of bears in the area, Coltrane said, and officials weren't sure which was responsible. They have no plans to hunt it down because it appeared to be behaving normally, she said. Monday afternoon, police were urging residents to be alert for wildlife. Fish and Game was doing likewise, with an added recommendation against fighting grizzly bears. "Typically if it's a defensive attack, which is in most cases with a brown bear, you've invaded their space. We recommend people to hold still because they want you to no longer be a threat," Coltrane said. "(Rees) did get off pretty lucky. The bear could have done a lot worse." |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/488418.html 2nd woman mauled in Bicentennial Park JOGGER: A sow grizzly jumped her near the site of Petra Davis' attack. By CRAIG MEDRED and JAMES HALPIN Anchorage Daily News (08/09/08 02:23:35) For the second time in six weeks, an Anchorage resident has been mauled by a grizzly bear in Far North Bicentennial Park. The woman, who has yet to be identified, was reported to be jogging along Campbell Creek around 6 p.m. Friday evening when she was attacked by a sow with two cubs. What is believed to be the same bear has been involved in a variety of aggressive confrontations with people since June. Rick Sinnott, the area's wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, believes it was this bear that chased a mountain biker down the Rover's Run trail earlier this summer and came within inches of sinking its teeth into a University of Alaska Anchorage cross-country runner on the Spencer Loop Trail in late July. Neither of those people was injured. The situation escalated on Friday when the bear caught hold of a woman and caused what Anchorage police called serious injuries -- biting and clawing her on her torso, arm and neck. The woman was able to pull herself together after the attack, hike back down Rover's Run to the Tour of Anchorage Trail, and make her way from there out to Campbell Airstrip Road, where she flagged down a passing car. "This is Alaska: big, wild life," said police Sgt. Pablo Paiz. "You have to be careful when you're out here in the woods. There's always a possibility that something's gonna jump out and grab you. You get between a sow and its cubs and a sow's gonna do what a sow's gonna do." A number of passers-by stopped to help the injured woman, including an off-duty firefighter, said Senior Capt. James Dennis with the Anchorage Fire Department. When emergency personnel reached her, she was conscious and said she had been attacked by a brown bear accompanied by two cubs, he said. She was taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center in serious condition. With her in treatment, police on the scene began a hasty patrol down Rover's Run, toting shotguns and non-lethal weapons as they examined the scene of the attack. There was no bear, but paw prints and fliers already posted warned of the potential danger, including one that said a sow and two cubs were in the area. Jogging through the thick, green woods on a quiet, near-windless evening on which occasional thunderstorms rolled through the Anchorage area, the woman ran into the bear along Campbell Creek not far downstream from where 15-year-old Petra Davis was mauled during a 24-hour mountain bike race on June 29. The young Anchorage cyclist spent more than a week in the hospital and is still recovering from bite wounds to her neck, shoulder and thigh. "A great deal of time each week, almost every day, is attributed to follow-up doctor appointments and physical therapy," her mother, Darcy, said in an e-mail to friends this week. "I look forward to the day my family will feel comfortable again biking and walking in the Far North Bicentennial Park. Unfortunately, I think that day is pretty far off. What a tragedy for us all!" Wildlife officials do not know if the sow that was involved in Friday's mauling was the bear that attacked Petra in the worst mauling in the history of the 4,000-acre park on the city's east side. A wild area tight up against the spreading urban jungle, the park is bounded by Tudor Road on the north and Abbott Road on the south. To the east, the wilderness of Chugach State Parks sprawls across mountains and valleys for tens of miles. Recent studies by Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Sean Farley have documented heavy bear use in the park and the adjacent Bureau of Land Management Campbell Tract. Over the course of two summers, scientists using hair traps to snag fur from bears passing along Campbell Creek identified 36 different grizzlies from their genetic fingerprints, but they didn't get fur from every bear in the area. "Undoubtedly, the true population of bears using the study area is larger than 36 individuals,'' Farley wrote in which he noted that four of the 11 radio-collared bears he tracked in the area never gave up any fur samples. Sinnott and assistant area wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane, herself a runner, consider Rover's Run among the most likely places in the park to encounter a bear. Both have tried to warn runners and cyclists to be wary of the area now that spawning salmon are in the stream, attracting hungry bears. Designed as a winter skijoring trail, Rover's in the summer is a twisting, turning, single-track rut through thick patches of spruce forest, willow thickets and cottonwood groves close along salmon-filled Campbell Creek. Farley's radio-collared bears used the route regularly as a trail, he said. The trail is especially popular with experienced mountain bikers because of its technical challenges. Some Anchorage residents knowledgeable about bears have felt comfortable using the trail during the day when grizzlies are normally least active, but Farley warned that his radio-collared tracking of the bears showed no particular pattern of use. These bears, he said, seemed to be as active in and around the Rover's Run trail at midday as at any other time. Anchorage police on Friday put up crime scene tape and a note warning of the most recent bearing mauling at one entrance to the trail system leading into Rover's, but there are multiple entrances and exits to the trail. One of the most heavily used -- just off the Tour of Anchorage Trail near BLM's little-used Campbell Airstrip -- already sported an orange bear-warning poster that Sinnott posted after UAA runner Auston Ellis narrowly escaped a mauling at the end of July. Ellis accidentally ran between a sow and two cubs. He was chased down the trail by the sow, then dove into the woods and managed to keep a large alder bush between himself and the bear until she tired of trying to get hold of him and left to go round up her cubs. In mid-June, skier Rick Rogers and a friend were run over by a sow with two cubs while running on the Double Bubble Trail in Hillside Park. The bear almost stepped on Rogers' head, but he -- like Ellis -- somehow escaped injury. Both the Double Bubble and Spencer Loop trails are within a mile or two of where the woman was mauled Friday evening. The second mauling in six weeks comes after 13 years without a serious attack in the Anchorage area. Though a couple people have been injured by grizzlies near the Eagle River visitor center, no one has ended up hospitalized or dead since Marcie Trent, 77, and her son, Larry Waldron, 45, died on the McHugh Creek Trail in May of 1995. The stumbled on a bear defending a moose kill, and it attacked. That bear was never found. Neither Sinnott nor Coltrane could be reached Friday night to comment on whether an attempt would be made to identify the bear involved in the latest attack and relocate or remove it. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/489177.html Mauling victim recounts attack on city trail Runner fled from cubs, but sow wouldn't give up By MEGAN HOLLAND mholland@adn.com (08/10/08 02:02:03) The brown bear stood and hesitated for a moment. Panting. It was just five feet away and Clivia Feliz, crouched between fallen trees, was futilely trying to protect herself. Feliz, a 51-year-old massage therapist and regular Anchorage trail runner, watched it in that time-stopping moment, waiting for its next move. But the bear's hesitation didn't last in the woods at Far North Bicentennial Park early Friday evening. It pounced, breaking through the trees as if they were a pile of dead leaves. What looked like a 400-pound bruin bit into Feliz's arm. Then it tore into it again. Its jaws went for her head and neck, but broke no bone and ripped no flesh. It jostled her head between its teeth. Then it stood over Feliz for another one of those long moments. Was it going for her stomach? How could she protect her vital organs? She tried to lift her legs. She turned her head in its direction just in time to hear the crunch of its teeth against her ribs. By the end of the attack, Feliz would have a partially collapsed lung, a torn arm, and puncture marks on her head and neck, among other injuries. She was the second person in six weeks to be mauled by what biologists believe to be the same brown bear with two cubs on the Rover's Run trail, which parallels the salmon-rich Campbell Creek in southeast Anchorage. "I'm lucky," Feliz said from her hospital bed at Providence Alaska Medical Center on Saturday, less than 24 hours after the attack. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have been on that trail." Fish and Game biologist Rick Sinnott looked for the bear until sunset Saturday, intending to kill it, and possibly its cubs. The trail is now closed. THE CUBS KEPT COMING Feliz, a marathon runner, had been avoiding Far North Bicentennial Park for the last month because of the brown bear attack on a 15-year-old biker in late June. But after seeing two black bears on her usual running trails at Kincaid recently, she decided to head to the east side park. She said that in the 12 years she's lived here, she's never seen so many bears around the city's trails. She parked her car just past Service High School, and she and her 6-year-old border collie, Sky, started their run on the multipurpose trail. She wanted to do six miles. When she got to the beginning of Rover's Run, she saw a sign warning of bears in the area. It said there had been a sighting on "7/25/08" but in a quick read, she registered it as June 25, not July 25. She thought it was six weeks ago, not two. Whatever hesitation she had from the sign dissipated when a bicyclist emerged from the trail. So she and Sky, who was running right next to her off leash, stepped onto the path. About 800 feet into it, she saw two cubs 50 feet away. "As soon as I stopped, they looked up and started bolting for us," she said. "At full speed." She turned around and began running as fast as she could back to the trail head. "I kept looking over my shoulder but they kept coming," she said. She knew she was in trouble. Their mother would be close behind. And she knew she couldn't outrun a sow. "I thought, if I get off the trail, maybe they'll lose me." So she scrambled for the woods. But the cubs kept coming. She decided to look for a tree or something she could climb for safety. But there was nothing. She turned around once more. Sky had run off in a different direction; the cubs took off after him. Behind her instead was a round, beautiful, healthy sow that looked like a 400-pound version of her cubs, coming through brush. 'THIS MIGHT BE IT' She crouched down next to a couple of fallen trees to create what barrier she could. Feliz hoped the bear would follow its cubs and keep going. But it didn't. "She just pounced right through those trees and was on top of me," she said. "I was like, 'This might be it.' " When the bear crunched into her rib cage, she could hear the bones separate. "She just chomped from front to back." None of what was happening to her was really registering, though. In that moment, her conscious thought was not that a bear was ripping her open. A primordial survival instinct took over. Feliz doesn't know how long the attack was. Time stopped and accelerated at once. She screamed for help, but no one was around. "She just stayed there for a moment, then took off real fast." When the bear retreated, she didn't know what to do. Was it still nearby? Should she play dead? Feliz was in pain but it wasn't what she was thinking about. She wasn't giving herself to it. She just couldn't while she was out there, she later recalled. She would have to try to survive. The realization of pain would come later in the emergency room. "I've got to get out. I don't have time to lie here," she thought. She knew something was very wrong where the bear had bitten into her ribs. She thought it might be her spleen. She couldn't yell out for help anymore, though. She couldn't figure out why. Later at the hospital she would learn it was because of her injured lung. She got up and started making her way back to the trail. She wouldn't look at her arm. She didn't want to see the details, she said. All that mattered was she knew she couldn't use it. Sky, disturbed but uninjured, found her and licked blood off her arm. She pushed her hand on her ribs to stop the bleeding, and started walking. One foot in front of the other. Feliz took 45 minutes to walk out to the Buckner trail head at Campbell Airstrip Road -- saying "Help" when she could. When she got to the road, one car came and she made eye contact with the driver. She tried to signal for help but had one arm pressuring her torso and the other one couldn't move. The driver kept going down the road. The driver of a second car seemed to be distracted and didn't even look at her, she said. She waited until a third car drove up. "I thought I'm going to have to hurl myself into the road here," she said. She told the driver to call 911. 'TAKE NOTICE' Feliz says the attack was her own fault. She shouldn't have been on the trail. She doesn't want to see the bear put down, but understands why Fish and Game would choose to. "If it wasn't me, it could have been someone else," she said. "I hope people take notice. It's not necessary to go to the extreme and kill every bear in the vicinity. But realize that when it is a year like this year, don't take high risks either. "I did and I shouldn't have." Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343. Hunt for bear intensifies Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Rick Sinnott searched for the bear at Far North Bicentenniel Park until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. He said it is a top priority to kill it. He, another biologist and an Alaska State Trooper walked Rover's Run and nearby woods but saw no sign of the sow or cubs. Rain washed away many of the tracks they had seen Friday. Sinnott said troopers will head out again today to hunt for the bear. He and other biologists will likely continue the search on Monday. -- Anchorage Daily News |
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/492117.html City closes Rover's Run after maulings BEAR DANGER: Violators found on posted trail can be charged with trespassing. By JAMES HALPIN jhalpin@adn.com (08/13/08 01:44:16) Bear encounters and attacks in Far North Bicentennial Park prompted the city on Tuesday to close Rover's Run Trail, the scene of two serious maulings this summer, until further notice. Anchorage Parks and Recreation notified some users at a Far North Bicentennial Trail User Group meeting Monday evening, said municipal manager Mike Abbott. The city has not ordered a trail closed in years, he said. "We wanted to make it even more clear than we have in the past that there's a dangerous situation along this trail corridor right now," Abbott said. "We've been posting the area for some time now warning people about bears in the area, but apparently there's still consistent use on that trail over the last couple of weeks." The mayor's office has been in contact with the Parks Department and asked for solutions that could be implemented. Closing the trail was one, and the mayor ordered it, Abbott said. The move follows a bear attack Friday, in which jogger Clivia Feliz, 51, was left with a partially collapsed lung, a torn arm, and puncture marks on her head and neck after encountering a sow and her two cubs on the trail. The trail is also the location of the severe mauling of Petra Davis, 15, in late June, possibly by the same animals. Wildlife officials have been hunting the sow, and plans now call for setting up cameras to assist in a possible attempt to trap it. Police closed the trail immediately after Friday's attack so that officers and wildlife officials could patrol it without fear of shooting someone. Warning signs and an impromptu closure posting remained at the trail head through the weekend. "A lot of times we'll try to clear the area just to make sure we have a safe backdrop. Beyond that, it's not like we're going to have officers or staff up there watching the trails to tell people, 'Sorry, closed,' " said police Lt. Paul Honeman. "We're not going to do anything special." Violators can expect to be slapped with a trespassing charge if caught on the closed trail, he said. There are no plans to physically block access to the trail, Abbott said, but the city is hoping people will realize the danger is real and avoid it. The trail runs along the south bank of the south fork of Campbell Creek and extends from BLM Track Viewpoint Trail (Tour of Anchorage Trail) to the South Gasline Trail. A segment of Moose Meadow Trail also intersects it. Honeman urged users on other trails to travel in groups and while in the backcountry to carry bear spray and to wear "dinner bells" to avoid surprising a bear. |
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/509629.html Grizzly attacks woman in tent REMOTE: Mauling was in Gates of the Arctic National Park. By CRAIG MEDRED cmedred@adn.com (08/29/08 02:56:42) A grizzly bear dragged a woman out of her tent Thursday and mauled her in a remote corner of Gates of the Arctic National Park in far north Alaska, according to the National Park Service. The woman was saved by companions camped with her in the seldom-visited Okokmilaga River drainage in the Brooks Range. Park Service spokesman John Quinley said they shouted at the bear and used pepper spray to drive it off. The woman, who has yet to be identified, was seriously injured, Quinley said, but her injuries were not life threatening. She was evacuated to Coldfoot, a remote truck stop along the desolate Dalton Highway between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay. An Alyeska Pipeline Services Co. helicopter, normally used to monitor the oil pipeline, was expected to pick her up there and ferry her to a hospital in Fairbanks, Quinley said. The area in which the attack happened is remote even by Alaska standards, he added. "It's a pretty rarely used area,'' Quinley said. "We're talking maybe once per year." Gates of the Arctic park superintendent Greg Dudgeon has ordered the area temporarily closed, but that is more a formality than anything else. "We don't think we're displacing anybody," Quinley said. "This group was scheduled to come out today, and Coyote Air knew of no one going in." Coyote Air is a Coldfoot-based air taxi servicing Gates of the Arctic and the Brooks Range. The area has seen an upward blip in the growth of tourism in recent years as debate over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has sparked interest in the Porcupine and Arctic caribou herds. The refuge and the park are split by the pipeline corridor. Quinley did not know if the woman was with a guided group, but she was a member of a seven-person party. They were camped and asleep when the bear arrived in camp. It apparently first entered a "food tent," Quinley said. "It destroyed a water jug," he said, and tried to get into the group's food, but couldn't. "It was in bear barrels,'' Quinley said. The Park Service requires those to be used by backpackers in Denali National Park and suggests their use elsewhere to try to keep bears from becoming habituated to human food. In this case, Quinley said, it appears that when the bear couldn't break into the bear barrels it decided to see what it could find in the next tent and attacked the woman inside. Her screaming apparently awoke others. Park personnel had yet to interview the woman or those with her. But early reports were that the bear was an adolescent grizzly. Such bears will often approach to investigate the relatively few humans who visit the remote wilderness of the Brooks Range on the very northern edge of Alaska, but attacks are rare. Quinley said the last he could remember was a fatal attack along the Noatak River more than 10 years ago. In that case, two men hiked into willows thick with bear sign. One stumbled onto a bear, which then attacked. He died. His partner, however, escaped. Bears attacks in camps have happened in the past, however. Three years ago, Anchorage attorney Richard Huffman and his wife, Katherine, a retired teacher, were attacked in their tent and killed by a grizzly along the Hula Hula River in ANWR. The Hula Hula is about 200 miles to the east of the Okokmilaga. Both rivers are 900 to 1,000 miles north of Anchorage and 500 to 600 miles north of Fairbanks. The community nearest the attack is Anaktuvuk Pass, a village of about 250 inland Inupiat who survive by trapping and hunting caribou. The area is so far from anything that even the Park Service finds access difficult. "We've got a helicopter scheduled so we can go to the campsite (today)," Quinley said. He was hopeful the weather would permit that, though rangers were reportedly skeptical they would find much at the campsite. "We're not really sure it's worth going in,'' Quinley said. Rangers doubted the bear would still be in the area. "It got scared off," Quinley said, "and it didn't come back." Given the huge home ranges of Brooks Range bears, the animal could be 50 miles or more from the campsite in a day's time. And even if rangers fly back to the area and do manage to spot a bear, there's really no way of telling if it was the bear involved in the attack. "Who knows what bear you're even looking at,'' Quinley said. |
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/510567.html Guide saved woman during bear attack By CRAIG MEDREDcmedred@adn.com (08/30/08 00:20:05) After a glorious week of watching herds of migrating caribou in the wild mountains of Alaska's Brooks Range, Jo Ann Staples was in her tent packing her bags to head home to Kentucky when a grizzly bear jumped on her back and nearly killed her, Gates of the Arctic National Park superintendent Greg Dudgeon said Friday. Dudgeon had just returned to his Fairbanks office from visiting Staples at the local hospital and talking to the guides who were with her on an all-woman, wildlife- watching trip to the remote Okokmilaga River about 500 miles almost due north from Anchorage. otion brought Dellenbaugh out of her tent. She "saw the bear with its head essentially in the tent of Jo Ann, and the tent was in a different place than where it had been staked,'' Gudgeon said. "She did a very brave thing, the lead guide, and ran in the direction of the bear.'' The bear dropped the tent containing Staples, stood up on its hind legs to get a better look at Dellenbaugh, then dropped to all fours and approached the guide. Dellenbaugh estimated the animal came to within seven or eight feet, Dudgeon said. Dellenbaugh stood firm. Down on all fours, the bear's head came up to near her chest, she told Dudgeon. Dudgeon noted Dellenbaugh stands near 6 feet tall. "This was not a scrawny bear,'' he said. As Dellenbaugh - an ordained member of the Order of Interbeing - faced off with the bear, she was joined by Sandstrum, who normally teaches cooking at the Rising Tide Market in Damariscotta, Maine. Sandstrum brought the bear spray. "It was just the two women standing shoulder to shoulder against the bear,'' Dudgeon said. They decided to use the bear spray to drive off the animal, but instead of spraying the bear in the face as recommended, they sprayed to either side of it. Dudgeon wasn't sure why. Dellenbach couldn't be reached Friday. Whatever the case, the sound of the bear spray going off and the orange cloud it spread across the tundra was enough to send the bear packing, Dudgeon said. "It turned around and started making its way out of camp,'' he said. Joined by the four other women along on the Alaska caribou-viewing trip, Dellenbach and Sandstrum then went to Staples' tent and "cut it away from the victim. She was fully conscious,'' Dudgeon said, "but she knew she'd been badly hurt.'' As Dellenbaugh, who is trained as wilderness first responder, began providing first aid, other members of the party got on a satellite phone and called Coyote Air, an air taxi based out of the remote truck stop of Coldfoot on the Dalton Highway. A single-engine plane landed on a gravel bar along the Okokmilaga not long after. A bench seat was stripped from the aircraft for use as a backboard, and Staples was strapped to it. She was then loaded and flown to Coldfoot. Guardian Flight, a medical evacuation service, ferried her from there to the Fairbanks hospital. Her husband, a State Department employee, and daughter were on the way to the hospital Friday, Dudgeon said. An initial Park Service assessment of the incident has concluded there was little the group could have done to avoid the attack. "This was a base camp,'' Dudgeon said. "They had been out there a week, had not seen any bears at all.'' The camp was clean, he added. Food and waste were stored in bear-proof containers the Park Service had provided. Those containers were, in turn, stored in another tent more than a hundred feet from where the women camped. The bear apparently entered the food tent first, Dudgeon said, and destroyed it during a futile attempt to get into the bear barrels. Why it attacked will never been known. Attacks on humans in tents are so extraordinarily rare scientists can't even posit a guess as to what triggers them. Starving bears have on occasion appeared to be going after people as last-ditch prey, but Dudgeon said, "this was not a scrawny bear.'' Park rangers patrolling in the Okokmilaga drainage on Friday were on the lookout for the animal, but didn't really expect to find it. |
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/521346.html Grizzly charges park volunteer, forces closure WOMAN UNHARMED: Officials say bear was guarding moose kill. By JAMES HALPIN jhalpin@adn.com (09/10/08 02:01:26) A grizzly charged a Chugach State Park volunteer at a Hillside trail head Tuesday morning, prompting park officials to close the area until a nearby moose carcass can be cleared out. The volunteer had gone up to open the gate to a parking area at the Canyon Road Trail head off DeArmoun Road when she saw the moose carcass. Then the bear saw her. "She wasn't injured, but it sounds like it was kind of a close call," said Rick Sinnott, the Anchorage wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "I don't know that the bear was actually on the kill but it was probably close enough by, kind of guarding it." Specific details on the charge, including how the woman escaped unharmed, were not available Tuesday. Park officials did not release her name. Because the bear likely remained in the area, park officials closed the gate and trail at noon and planned to keep it shut at least until today, when officials could get out to try removing the carcass, said park superintendent Tom Harrison. When the trail head reopens will depend on whether wildlife officials are successful. Even then, it might then take a few days to make sure the bear has moved on. "I suspect we're going to have to leave it closed for another day or two," Harrison said. "We haven't really seen what the circumstances are up there right now." Sinnott said he was hopeful officials would be able to get the carcass out without a problem. His crew has had practice. In July, he and other biologists removed the carcass of a moose calf that had been killed across the street from an Eagle River subdivision. That bear charged the group, but did not attack, and all escaped unharmed. "Since it's close to the road I think there's a good chance we'll get it out," Sinnott said. "If the bear's charging around and doesn't want us to take his carcass, we're not going to just shoot the bear and take the carcass. We'll close the trail." |
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/570983.html Montana deer hunter rescued after attack by Kodiak bears After two days in remote cabin, help arrives By JAMES HALPIN jhalpin@adn.com (10/29/08 00:55:11) A Montana man badly mauled in a bear attack in a remote region of Kodiak Island and unable to get help holed up in a cabin with his hunting partner for two days before being rescued Tuesday afternoon, according to Alaska State Troopers. Matthew T. Sutton, 31, was attacked by three bears -- a sow and two cubs -- Sunday while hauling a deer carcass he had killed to the beach along Viekoda Bay near the Rolling Point cabin, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said. "Originally, it was a cub that knocked him over and then he stood up and I believe he yelled something at the bears, and then all three of the bears attacked him," Peters said. Family friend Wanda Merja, reached at Sutton's home in Great Falls, Mont., Tuesday evening, said Sutton had just come to Alaska on the hunting trip Thursday. Sutton had been bitten and clawed on an arm, leg and the back of his neck during the attack, she said. Troopers characterized the injuries as non-life-threatening. Sutton was picked up by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and flown to Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center. Sutton's family had spoken to him briefly there while he was medicated but didn't have the full details of what happened, she said. "He just got cornered by a bear, dragging a deer out, and the bears attacked him," Merja said. "At the moment, he was alone and he got away and he made it back to the cabin." Sutton and his partner, Bill Bush, had just arrived in the remote area -- roughly 10 miles west of Port Lions -- Saturday for a week-long hunting trip, said Dean Andrew, owner of Kodiak-based charter Andrew Airways, which flew them there. Bush told Andrew that he saw some of the attack unfolding. Sutton was coming down a pathway on a brush-covered hill at the end of the day Sunday, hauling a deer he had shot, when the bears "ambushed" him near the bottom of the hill, almost to the water's edge, Andrew said. The cubs may have actually been older animals, 2-year-olds almost out of mom's care, Andrew said. "The bears just wanted the meat and so they just started going after him. They just bit him up really good and then they went for the deer," he said. "We have a lot of bears, but for as many bears as we have on the island, and as much human-bear interaction, we have very few of these." Sutton made his way back to the cabin, but help was nowhere to be found. The men didn't have their own transportation and for communication only had a low-power marine VHF radio and no satellite phone. Their radio calls went unanswered until Tuesday morning, when Andrew's pilot, Steve Larsen, was flying past on other business, he said. "He happened to be going over pretty close and he heard a weak Mayday, so he swooped in there and saw the situation. The guy was in too much pain to even be able to move him at all," Andrew said. "We usually check on our guys about halfway through but we had just put them in there a couple days ago." Larsen called back to base in Kodiak and reported the situation. Though the refuge cabin was only about 100 yards from the water where Larsen landed his plane, Sutton needed specialized help in moving, Andrew said. Andrew called the U.S. Coast Guard and then pulled together three men himself to fly out and help. "These bites went deep into his neck, down to the bone, and his left arm was all bit up too, so I was concerned with the head bites and about moving him," Andrew said. The Coast Guard got the call just before noon and in short time dispatched a Jayhawk helicopter from Kodiak, said Petty Officer Wesley Shipley. As that aircraft was arriving on the scene, Andrew's aircraft was touching down as well. The Coast Guard rescuers, joined by Andrew's crew, loaded Sutton onto a stretcher and put him into the Jayhawk, which flew him to the Kodiak medical center. Sutton was being flown to an Anchorage hospital Tuesday night while his family made plans to fly here to be with him, Merja said. "He's young. He should be fine." |
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/452938.html Attack risk high in city's bear-dense park FAR NORTH BICENTENNIAL: Site of teen's mauling frequented by at least 20 bruins fishing for salmon. By GEORGE BRYSON gbryson@adn.com (07/02/08 01:35:55) There aren't just a couple of grizzlies that traipse through Far North Bicentennial Park at the eastern edge of Anchorage each summer. At least 20 have passed through over a two-year period. So says state wildlife biologist Sean Farley, who spent the past two summers gathering telltale DNA specimens from brown bears that frequent the mostly wild 4,000-acre park. And Farley isn't surprised that the place where one such bear attacked and mauled a 15-year-old Anchorage girl early Sunday morning was near the intersection of the South Fork Campbell Creek and the Gasline Trail. That's one corner of a three-sided zone -- a bear-dense triangle-like area bounded by the north and south forks of Campbell Creek and the gasline to the east -- where he either saw or found DNA-rich hair samples of nearly all those bears. "From our collared (bear) studies, we had some that would swing on down the South Fork and turn the corner and go up the North Fork," Farley said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "That triangle that's demarcated by the north and south forks and by the gasline gets a lot of brown bear use -- and black bears. But primarily brown bears." During the last week of June and the first week of July, king salmon begin to enter the creeks and brown bears move in, Farley said. Earlier in the summer, they're scattered far and wide. But when the salmon run begins, most of the collared bears he's tracked in recent summers are within 100 yards of the streams and adjacent creek-side trails. Rover's Run, where the attack occurred, is one of those, paralleling Campbell Creek's south fork. Bears will stay there all summer until the salmon runs subside and they disperse in search of berries, Farley said. COEXISTING WITH BEARS A research biologist for the southcentral region of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Farley wonders whether the city might consider creating a trail-less corridor in areas where brown bears historically feed. At the same time, he realizes those areas -- beside picturesque creeks and greenbelts -- attract people too. "A lot of people like to walk along the streams and they like to see the fish, and so trails tend to be put in those areas," he said. "But unfortunately, the bears like those trails also." The city parks department on Tuesday posted more signs near Rover's Run, warning park users to avoid the trail because of the current danger with brown bears in the area. Meanwhile, the parents of mauling victim Petra Davis asked the media to "honor our request for privacy until Petra can tell her story in her own words." "She is still being treated in the critical care unit, but she is expected to make a full recovery," Mark and Darcy Davis said, addressing the public in a written statement released Tuesday by Providence Alaska Medical Center. A student at South High School, Davis was attacked by a bear shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday while competing in an all-night mountain-bike race. In an earlier message to friends and members of the local biking community, the Davises detailed the nature of their daughter's wounds. "She suffered lacerations and punctures to her neck, right shoulder, torso, buttocks and right thigh," they said. "Despite the severity, she is doing very well." Davis underwent surgery Sunday evening to repair her carotid artery and was due to undergo additional operations on her trachea and possibly her esophagus on Monday, the family added. No other surgeries were expected. |
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http://www.adn.com/bearattacks/story/437047.html Bear killed during second attack in Galena BLACK: Animal showed up in yard and wouldn't leave. By LISA DEMER ldemer@adn.com (06/15/08 02:29:22) The city of Galena is abuzz with its second black bear attack in less than 24 hours, and this time, the bear was shot and killed, Galena police report. This bear was aggressive, police say. It had charged a 14-year-old girl and a man and fought with a dog before resident Howard Beasley stared it down and shot it sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday, according to Galena Police Chief John Millan. No people were injured. Locals believe the bear was preying on moose calves -- veal, to a bear. Galena is a city of nearly 700 people about 270 miles west of Fairbanks on the Yukon River. Beasley, director of the city water plant, said he and his wife had been fishing into the night on Bear Creek, off the Yukon. His wife fell and was hurt, so he took her to the local clinic, then returned to the river to collect the boat. He was just pulling in at home when his wife hobbled out and shouted from the balcony that a neighbor needed help, and fast. "There was a bear in the yard," she told him. "They couldn't get rid of it. They didn't have a gun. It was coming back, and it was getting more aggressive." So he pulled back out, still hauling the boat, to track down that bear. Scared residents started calling the police chief around 1:25 a.m. Millan said in a news release that Galena police respond to bear calls, but the community only has two officers, and there's one vacancy. He was arresting someone for domestic violence when the bear attacks happened Saturday. The teenager was attacked first, according to police. Kids in Galena play outside until all hours in summer, when the sun doesn't set, Beasley said. The neighbor, Christopher Kriska, told police that he heard a noise, went to investigate and was charged by the bear. His dog, Scooby, a pit-bull-and-lab mix, then attacked the bear. They both managed to get inside. But unlike the incident on Friday, when a young bear ran off after tussling with a St. Bernard on a run, this bear wouldn't leave. So it fell to Beasley. "I just happened to see the bear coming out of the woods again," Beasley said. "There's no doubt it saw me. It was only 30 feet away, and it put its head down and huffed up his shoulders like he was getting ready -- was coming out no matter what. I went ahead and popped him with the gun." Beasley said he used a 12-gauge shotgun with slugs to drop the bear. He's hunted grizzly before and this spring got a nice black bear with meat he said is as tasty as beef from Carrs. But the bear Saturday wasn't good for eating, Beasley said. He skinned it, as required, to send the hide, skull and claws to the state Department of Fish and Game. The bear had been eating carrion, along with moose calves, so he disposed of the carcass away from town. Saturday's incident was the first attack by a bear on a person in Galena in at least 30 years, according to police. They wander into town in search of garbage but usually stick to the dump, about five miles out of town. Millan asks anyone who sees a bear in or near town to called Galena police at 656-2177 or troopers at 1-800-811-0911. |
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http://dwb.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/attacks/story/9203364p-9118852c.html Friends rescue Shaktoolik man after severe mauling by grizzly Young companions hailed as heroes By ALEX deMARBAN ademarban@adn.com (Published: August 8, 2007) A Western Alaska man is recovering at an Anchorage hospital after a horrific bear mauling, thanks to quick action by two hunting partners who may have saved his life -- and his legs. The grizzly bear attacked Sean Evan, 32, last Tuesday while Evan was on a moose hunting trip with two others up the Shaktoolik River. Details about the attack are sketchy. The hunters, all from the village of Shaktoolik, east of Nome, wouldn't talk about what happened. But villagers described a remarkable rescue and an emotional scene at the local clinic as the health aide -- Evan's fiancee, Lydia Jackson -- cared for Evan's shattered legs and stabilized him for an emergency flight out. Evan's hunting partners and close friends, Michael Rock, 23, and A.J. Nakarak, 17, were extremely shaken by the mauling and cried as they described what happened, said Mayor Harvey Sookiayak. Sookiayak and others wouldn't discuss details of the attack, either, referring questions to the three hunters. Rock, reached in Shaktoolik , said he and his brother, Nakarak, had nothing to say. Asked why, he replied, "It's embarrassing. We consider ourselves very good hunters and this thing (being attacked) is frowned upon by me and my hunting crew." According to villagers: The three hunters had taken a boat a couple of hours upriver from the village and had walked another two miles when Evan was attacked. His companions shot the bear several times, killing it. With their friend badly injured, they made a leg tourniquet with a belt strap from rain pants and fashioned a splint from branches to keep his legs together below the knees. They hauled Evan back to the boat and sped back to the village. They elevated his knees and kept him warm. Sookiayak, who helped dress the wounds at the clinic, said Evan's lower legs were badly mangled, possibly crushed by the bear's jaws. Both legs had large tears in the flesh below the knee, especially the left leg. After a splint was removed from the left leg, only muscle seemed to hold the leg together, he said. "It was a huge gash, something like I've never seen before," Sookiayak said. The attack shook the tight-knit village of 200, he said. "There's been quite a bit of concern. We're hoping and praying he'll pull completely through with no damage." News of the tragedy spread through the community over VHF radios -- initial reports said Evan had been accidentally shot -- and villagers flocked to the clinic to offer support, said city clerk Rita Auliye. "They were in shock. First time we ever had a bear attack around here," she said. Unusually high numbers of bears have been spotted in the area this summer, said Sookiayak and Sgt. Matthew Dobson, head of state wildlife enforcement for the region. People have been worried because berry pickers are seeing them in groups, instead of alone. One reason for all the bears could be that there are more dead walrus on the coastline than usual, Dobson said. It's unclear why, he said. Also, there was no commercial herring season for the first time in many years in Norton Sound, and more herring and roe might be washing ashore, he said. Family members visiting Evan at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage say he's doing better than expected, Auliye said. Doctors report he might walk with both legs again. Auliye said the village sees Rock and Nakarak as heroes for saving Evan's life and legs by stopping the bleeding and getting him to the village quickly. "The paramedics said he could have bled to death before they got to the clinic," she said. "We are pretty proud of those boys." |
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Wow folks, we are starting very early this year. Keep your eyes peeled and be aware of your surroundings when you are in the field. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/731860.html Black bear trees man near Campbell Airstrip The Associated Press (03/21/09 19:03:14) Alaska State Troopers say an Anchorage man was forced to climb a tree to dodge a black bear near Campbell Airstrip. An Anchorage police dispatcher Saturday summoned Palmer Wildlife Troopers to take the report of the man harassed on the Basher Trail near Campbell Airstrip. Charles L. Lamb of Anchorage told officers he was forced up a tree by a large black bear at about 11:30 a.m. Lamb was able to get the attention of people walking with dogs and the dogs chased the bear off. Lamb says the bear stalked them for a half mile as they walked out. Alaska Wildlife Troopers walked to the area and found fresh bear tracks and hair. Troopers were unable to locate the animal. Warning signs have been posted in the area. |
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sv_libertarian State Researcher
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Hmmm interesting. Reminds me it's about time for them to start showing up down here too. Usually one or two get shot out of a tree locally. Last year it was a Tenino cop with his AR-15 taking one down. (Engaging a treed bear with an AR is NOT my idea of a good time...) |
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murphyslaw State Researcher
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 Last edited on Mon Mar 23rd, 2009 11:35 pm by murphyslaw |
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sv_libertarian State Researcher
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Heheh that's funny. Who was that idiot some years back who lived among the grizzlies, refused to carry a gun, and wound up as dinner? |
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pullnshoot25 Regular Member 
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Geez, you Alaskan guys sure have it rough up there, CRIKEY! Definitely not going to Alaska without some really hot 340gr.44s in my Puma and 300gr hot loads in my Tracker, fark that! -N8 |
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Sonora Rebel Regular Member
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I'm amazed! I'm amazed that people in a state that has no BS 2A restrictions still go unarmed knowing that dangerous critters not only abound, but will attack (and do). Darwin was right. No doubt the bear spray hacks really do care more about the bears than people. Apparently the people who would rely on that stuff do as well. |
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S. Fisher Regular Member 
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sv_libertarian wrote: Heheh that's funny. Who was that idiot some years back who lived among the grizzlies, refused to carry a gun, and wound up as dinner? Timothy Treadwell. He forgot they are called wild animals for a reason, and paid for it with his life and that of his girlfriends. |
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sv_libertarian State Researcher
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell Why do they make movies of idiots like Treadwell and Christopher McCandless? I can't begin to tell you how many people have asked me if I've seen "Into the Wild" when I tell 'em I'm planning to go to Alaska. I just shake my head and say I plan to have a bit more than a bad map, 10 pounds of rice and a .22... |
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FMCDH Regular Member 
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Hope the camera man was wearing his 'depends' that day! Guy was probably better off throwing his camera down the things gullet and preying the bear would choke to death on it. Even a .22 MiniMag would have been better than nothing in that situation. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Talk about a pathetic way to try to solve the actual problem at hand..  Salmon have been swinning up the local streams in town for ages and we never had the bear problems that we have today when I was growing up. I like bears and I don't want to see them eraticated from the area. However, this is out-of-control and a reasonable solution other than closing trails completely needs to be initiated instead of letting the tree-hugging greenies run the city. I live in town in a residential neighborhood and I have bear scat in my back yard for goodness sakes. I shouldn't have to consider donning full battle dress just to go mountain biking down one of our local trails. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/story/777230.html City to close trail on which bear mauled cyclist last summer The Associated Press (04/29/09 09:31:49) Parks officials in Anchorage will this summer close a trail where a grizzly bear mauled a young woman during a bicycle race last year. The bear last summer mauled the cyclist participating in a 24-hour bike race on Rover's Run in Far North Bicentennial Park. The trail was closed to cyclists after the attack but not to hikers. Parks officials says they will shut the trail in early summer before salmon begin entering nearby streams. A closing date has not been set. Parks officials say they don't want to wait for another problem. |
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sv_libertarian State Researcher
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Well duh! Don't you know closing something, or banning something prevents it's use and protects people? Where were you during Stupid Knee Jerk Reactions 101? |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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Well, this post is a couple of weeks old now but I thought I would at least put it out there cosidering that there are bear and wolf issues on this road every year and nobody can carry defensive weaponry because it is on the Army base. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/wolves/story/774886.html Wolf grabs dog, follows joggers on Fort Richardson trail NO INJURIES: No plan to hunt animal yet, but the area is now closed. By JAMES HALPIN jhalpin@adn.com (04/27/09 13:14:10) Fort Richardson officials announced Monday that they have closed a section of the post for recreational use following a weekend encounter in which a wolf grabbed a dog by the nape of its neck, then trailed two joggers and their dogs after releasing its catch unharmed. The encounter, the first serious confrontation between wolf and dog reported in the area since last winter, prompted Army officials to indefinitely close the fort north of Artillery Road in Eagle River. The encounter took place Sunday afternoon, when two people were jogging with three dogs on Artillery Road about a half mile west of its intersection with Route Bravo. One of the dogs, described as a pointer-retriever mix, fell behind the group, said Bruce Bartley, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "The older dog kind of lagged behind, and they heard a yelp, and turned around and looked and a wolf had grabbed it," Bartley said. "So the people turned around and ran at the wolf, and he promptly drops the dog." The gray-coated wolf, however, wasn't scared off. It followed at a distance for about a half mile while one person hung back to scare it and the other led the dogs away, said Rick Sinnott, Anchorage-area wildlife biologist with Fish and Game. The dog was uninjured in the encounter. Fort and wildlife officials would not name the joggers Monday. Bartley described them as experienced trail users who were taken off-guard by the unseasonable attack. Wolf encounters typically occur in the midst of winter, when they are having trouble finding food and can be prone to snatching pets, he said. The joggers had not signed in as required for their trip on base and also apparently did not have their dogs on leashes, in violation of base policy, Army spokesman Bob Hall said. "There can be some severe consequences," Hall said of failing to sign in. "The commander can just determine to bar them from recreating on the installation for a year." He said he didn't know what specific action, if any, was being taken against the joggers. The encounter marked the first serious confrontation reported since a series of wolf attacks on Fort Richardson and along Knik Arm left three dogs dead and several others wounded in late 2007, Sinnott said. Those encounters, which included wolves stalking people and pets, prompted Army officials to close the area north of Artillery Road for about a month. State wildlife biologists say there are four or five wolf packs in and around the municipality and they are known to occasionally take pets from yards. Only one pack, however, is thought to be responsible for the series of attacks then and is suspected in the recent encounter. That is the Elmendorf pack, which is so named because it frequents the Air Force base and Fort Richardson. The 2007 attacks stopped after a young female from the pack was shot in December that year. There have been a few close encounters involving pets and wildlife since, including with coyotes this spring, but no serious wolf confrontations, Sinnott said. "It's isolated in the sense of being the first one really in the last year or so, but it's not isolated in the sense that this pack has done it before, so that's kind of factoring into our concern," Sinnott said. "In this case, it is very likely that it's a wolf that has done this before." In addition to closing the area, Army officials planned to dispatch military police to conduct patrols in the area to watch for aggressive animals, Hall said. Sinnott said officials have no immediate plans to hunt the wolf down. The animal appeared to be alone and there was no indication it was protecting a nearby den -- the confrontation seemed predatory, he said. "We're always looking for a pattern, so if it happens again we'll have to do something," Sinnott said. "It's one thing if it's happening in the winter when the wolves are in packs and they're hungry, but if it's just a single wolf that's decided to start picking off dogs like that, that wouldn't be a good thing." |
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Ian Lone Star Veteran 
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OC-Glock19 wrote
OMG! This is by far the most halarious story I have ever read on this forum! |
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Hendu024 Regular Member 
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murphyslaw wrote: There is no debating the stopping power of a 12ga 3" 1oz slug. +1 A 458 grain slug lumbering along is like a freight train. I've seen what it can do to a deer or a moose, I can only imagine that it would at the very least make a bear think twice about advancing. I once shot a 30-30 (Remington Core-Lokt) into a block of hardwood, and then fired a 12 ga. slug into a near identical block. The 30-30 penetrated appx. 4 inches and the 12 ga. was almost double. |
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smash29 Regular Member 
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Flintlock wrote: Third was a moose encounter. I was hiking alone on the Powerline Pass Trail when a young bull came out of nowhere and started galloping towards me at 50 feet away. I started taking backward steps, dropped my poles, and put my hand close to my Balckhawk Serpa and prepared to draw. At the last possible moment he veered away and continued up the hill toward Flat Top right when I was about to draw and fire. A little farther down the trail, I realized he had just been kicked out of a moose convention where about 8 bulls were hanging out near the trail and laying in the grass. Damn, that hits close to home, I hiked that trail last time I was in Alaska! And here I was contemplating leaving my gun at home when head up again in a few weeks. After reading this thread all I gotta say is that it's going with me now! |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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smash29 wrote: Flintlock wrote:Third was a moose encounter. I was hiking alone on the Powerline Pass Trail when a young bull came out of nowhere and started galloping towards me at 50 feet away. I started taking backward steps, dropped my poles, and put my hand close to my Balckhawk Serpa and prepared to draw. At the last possible moment he veered away and continued up the hill toward Flat Top right when I was about to draw and fire. A little farther down the trail, I realized he had just been kicked out of a moose convention where about 8 bulls were hanging out near the trail and laying in the grass. I need to update this thread because I was charged by a moose right out of the Glen Alps parking lot this summer and it was my 2nd closest brush with death-by-moose yet... |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=11225348 Sitka hunter fends off grizzly attack Associated Press - September 29, 2009 3:34 PM ET SITKA, Alaska (AP) - A grizzly bear attacked a Sitka deer hunter, who managed to fend the animal off by clubbing it with the butt of his rifle. Thirty-9-year-old Karl Wolfe escaped with bites to his arm. Wolfe was hiking up a steep mountainside in the dark Sunday morning near Sitka's old pulp mill. The bear rushed Wolfe, bit him on his arm and knocked him to the ground between two trees. Wolfe didn't have a round chambered in his .30-06 rifle but managed to swing the gun around and hit the bear with the butt. The bear didn't go away. Wolfe says it swung around and came at him again. Wolfe chambered a cartridge and fired a shot from the hip. The bear fled and Wolfe said he didn't know if he hit the animal. Wolfe was treated for two puncture wounds. |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/923307.html Bear's raid on freezer turns out to be fatal The Associated Press (09/04/09 21:13:28) FAIRBANKS -- A homeowner and a retiree combined to fatally shoot a male black bear that raided a freezer in Ester this week. State wildlife officials said it's likely the same bear that had been seen for the past week in the community five miles south of Fairbanks. "It probably made its way into town, found food, figured it was an easy way to add calories for the winter and decided to hang around," said Tom Seaton, an assistant area biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game. Seaton said the shooting was legal. Getting into the freezer, even though it was unlocked and on a porch, provides enough justification for the homeowner to shoot it, Seaton said. The homeowner wounded the bear, then phoned Gus Wagner, who had a legal hunting license and a bear harvest tag. Wagner said he found the bear in the woods and "finished him off." |
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Flintlock Regular Member
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http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/864535.html Bear encounters and deaths on the rise across Mat-Su TALKEETNA: Man shoots four bears in roughly three minutes at his cabin. By S.J. KOMARNITSKY skomarnitsky@adn.com (07/14/09 17:10:42) WASILLA -- Two weekends ago, a Talkeetna area man woke up to a sow and three cubs breaking into his cabin. He ended up blasting all four, including a 250-pound bruin he shot from inches away as it pushed its way through his back door. Two days later, a Talkeetna grandma had an equally scary encounter when a brown bear broke into her kitchen in the middle of the night. She escaped by shimmying out her bedroom window in her pajamas. Those are just two of the up-close bear encounters in Mat-Su this summer, which is shaping up to be unusually busy, according to a biologist. The number of bear encounters are up and so are bear deaths. At least 13 bears have been shot and killed in the Valley this summer in defense of life and property cases. That compares to the usual number of about five a summer, according to a state game official. Tony Kavalok, a state game biologist based in Palmer, said his office has been getting a steady stream of calls about nuisance bears, including a sow with cubs getting into trash at a Girl Scouts camp off Knik-Goose Bay Road and another bruin nosing around a fish-counting crew camped on the Deshka River. There have also been at least two bears hit by vehicles, including one last week on the Old Glenn Highway near the Eklutna Tailrace. "We do seem to have bears coming out of the woodwork everywhere right now," he said. He said the incidents have run the gamut from Talkeetna to Big Lake to the Butte. At least one man is also facing legal trouble for shooting a bear. State wildlife officials Sunday cited Randall A. Brown, 47, for illegally feeding game and taking a sow bear after he shot a sow in early July at his home on Knik River Road. Brown had an estimated 100 to 200 bags of garbage on his property which attracted the bears, said Lt. Tory Oleck There's no clear reason why this summer has been busier than usual. But, Kavalok said, king salmon returns have been poor which might make bears more likely to move around in search of food. The hot weather has also made for low water levels in non glacially fed streams that could allow bears to move about more. The good news is the overall number of incidents is still small. Also none of the encounters have involved people running into bears while biking or hiking, he said. Rather the encounters have happened in the usual places -- around salmon streams or near homes or Dumpsters where bears are trying to get at potential food. But that's little salve to those whose heartbeats are still racing from their own personal encounters. Yukon Don Tanner, a safety manager for Matanuska Electric Association said he's still not sleeping well after his July 6 run-in with a sow and three cubs at his cabin near Talkeetna. Tanner said he was wakened about 4 a.m. by a noise outside his house. "I have a squirrel that fusses around, but I thought that's not a squirrel noise," he said. He got up, grabbed his Marlin .45-70 rifle from a table near the door where he leaves it loaded at night and looked out his bathroom window. Outside he saw a bear 60 feet away. He though it was a lone boar -- which is legal to shoot -- so he fired a blast, right through the screen window, he said. The bear dropped, and Tanner thought that was the end of the story. But as he got ready to get back in bed, he heard a noise on his back porch. He went to look and saw another bear -- one of the sow's cubs -- peering in at him through a screen window near the door. "I take three steps toward the noise and this bear head pops up right in front of the screen so I shoot that one through the screen," he said. At that point Tanner is standing next to his door, rifle at his knee when he said yet another cub -- a 250-pound bruiser -- starts to push the door open. Tanner said he instinctively shot the bear in the face and it turned around and ran. Finally, as he went out to make sure the bear had died, he saw yet a final cub in his yard. He thought it was running toward him and he shot that one too. "In about three minutes, I shot four bears," he said. "(My adrenaline) was about Mach 2. I couldn't sit still. My knees were shaking. I thought, 'Holy cow! I'm under attack.' " Sharon Lawrence can sympathize with Tanner's feelings. The retired nurse is still shell shocked from the early-morning raid last Wednesday in her home near the Talkeetna airport in which a bear broke through a screen window, upended her garbage and helped himself to a bag of brown sugar in her cupboard. Lawrence said she first heard the bear outside about 1:30 a.m. She saw it out her window, but when she went to look again, it was gone. A second later, she heard a thump in her kitchen. "It sounded like everything was getting thrown around," she said. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh,' and those weren't my exact words, 'I have a bear in my house.' " Lawrence couldn't get to the front door so she crawled out her bedroom window and ran to a neighbor's house. She came back with a friend who was armed, but the bear was gone. The next night her son-in-law, Todd Kingery, slept in the house and when the bear returned, he shot it, she said. Lawrence said she feels bad for the bear, but everyone has told her it would have kept coming back. |
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