BEARS AND HUMANS IN ALASKA
When I traveled around Alaska on a bicycle in the 1980s the first question local people asked me was whether or not I was carrying a gun. "Most places in Alaska don't have a persistent problem with bear or moose, because if it's anywhere near the village, they shoot it, no questions asked," said Rick Sinnott, an Alaska Fish and Game Department biologist told the Washington Post. "It's the Last Frontier mentality: You don't tolerate any risk from wild animals." [Source: Karl Vick, Washington Post, August 17, 2008]
Even the Anchorage area, a metro area with 400,000 people, was issues with wild animals. "The joke used to be, Anchorage isn't too bad because it's only two hours from Alaska," Sean Farley, a bear biologist with the Fish and Game Department, told the Post. "The truth is, Alaska is right here. We've got bears. We got moose. We got wolves. You name it."
That frontier mentality remains common across a state where fishermen routinely carry guns. "I don't see it any different than New York in rush hour: You just have to pay attention. Our cars just have hair and teeth," said Don Smith, a telephone technician packing a .45 along with his fly rods as he prepared to float the Russian River, not far from the Kenai Princess Lodge.
According to the Washington Post: Grizzlies routinely fish the bright teal waters alongside humans in what "feels like joint custody," said Sherry Simpson, a University of Alaska professor and author of a book on bears and humans. In Anchorage, trails placed beside streams are used both by bears and by people who often forget that a city can also be part of the wild. Analyzing the DNA from fur collected from thistles and wires, Farley found that 20 different bears passed near the stream where Davis and Feliz were mauled. Radio-collar tracking indicated that when salmon are running, bears are almost always within 100 yards of the stream and, therefore, the trail.
Record Number of Bear Attacks in the Anchorage Area in 2008
Karl Vick wrote in the Washington Post: Most times, in Alaska, the bear eats you. In the summer of 2008, in a record year for maulings, Devon Rees managed a draw with the grizzly that leapt onto him as he sauntered home between a stream brimming with salmon and the busiest highway in the state. "Bear comes flying out, gets its fight on," said Rees, 18, nursing his wounds on the couch of his grandmother's trailer perhaps 60 yards from the scene of the Aug. 4 battle. Bandages covered puncture wounds on the inside of both his thighs, and blood seeped through the gauze around one elbow. His jeans lay in shreds on the floor. His left eye was puffy from the swat of a massive paw. "She was moving around like a dog will when it's fighting," said the 5-foot-11-inch, 215-pound Rees, who had been at a friend's house until 2 a.m. watching a movie called "Never Back Down." "It was fist to claw." [Source: Karl Vick, Washington Post, August 17, 2008]
In a typical year, Rees would stand out as the Anchorage area's one and only mauling victim. These days, he's just a face in a crowd of them, notable chiefly for defying expert advice that playing dead is the best way to survive after spooking a grizzly. At least eight Alaskans have been battered by bears this year, with three maulings in five days in early August. And though no human fatalities have been recorded, the summer of the bear is testing Alaskans' carefully calibrated relationship with wildlife, an evolving attitude that differs from views in the Lower 48, where grizzlies run half as large. And this summer, a poor season for salmon has made the bears loiter longer at Anchorage streams and be less tolerant of interruption. "If you don't get enough to eat, you get cranky," Farley said.
The first attack, on June 29, was one of the worst. Petra Davis, 15, was cycling in a marathon bike race at 1 a.m. on a trail beside a salmon stream in the city's Far North Bicentennial Park. In the darkness, with the wind whipping the cottonwood trees, she may have careened broadside into a mama grizzly. It chewed through her bike helmet, crushed her trachea and cut into her shoulder, torso, buttocks and thigh. "She was on the ground, sitting up, bloody, her cellphone out," said Sinnott, who heard a recording of the call Davis managed to place to 911. "She was apologizing because she had a hard time talking." She got out the word "bear." Another rider directed paramedics. Suspicion centered on a grizzly sow with two cubs that had been the subject of a half-dozen reports in the area over a six-week period. One jogger said he discovered the sow running behind him and pulled himself forward as its jaws snapped shut an inch from his rear end.
The next attack came July 23, a few yards from the front door of the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge, 100 miles south of Anchorage. Abi Sisk, 21, had just stepped onto a trail in the 11 p.m. twilight. She was bending to look at flowers when a grizzly lunged. "She heard growling, and all of a sudden it was on her," said Dan Michels, the lodge manager. A guest heard "what he thought was laughing," from the parking lot and saw the bear with Sisk's head in its mouth. The beast ran off after the man ran toward it, waving his arms and shouting. Sisk, a housekeeper, survived, partially scalped and with a broken jaw. Since May, a dozen bears have been shot on the Kenai Peninsula after threatening humans.
The sense of crisis took hold on Aug. 8, four days after Rees's encounter, when at 5 p.m. Clivia Feliz jogged onto Rover's Run, the city park trail where Davis was attacked. She had run 800 feet when the ears of her border collie, Sky, went straight up. Two grizzly cubs were 30 feet ahead on the trail, sniffing the ground. "I'm thinking, 'Where's the sow?' " Feliz said from her Anchorage hospital bed. Not seeing one, she turned and ran back down the trail. The cubs gave chase. Feliz veered into the woods, figuring that "if I disappear from sight, maybe the cubs will just forget, like kids." "But they were still coming."
Before she saw the mother bear, she heard it, first on the trail, then crashing through the brush. Feliz, 51, lay down behind some dead trees. The cubs "blew right by me," but the sow veered her way. "I could see her nose go up. She scented me." The bear was on her in seconds. There was no growling or clicking of teeth. It just stared at Feliz, huffing, then lunged at her head and "chomped right down" on the arm Feliz brought up reflexively. For a few seconds, the bear simply held her captive, pushing Feliz's head and shoulders with its paws and mouth but not biting. "She was just staring at me," said Feliz, a massage therapist. "And I was thinking I should protect my vital organs, because if she bites me in the stomach, you know, a lot of blood there. I drew my legs up. There was another huff. She bit down, but she bit down very deliberately this time. "I could feel the ribs cracking. I knew she had bit into something, like an organ." Four ribs snapped, partially collapsing a lung.
Her screams of pain did not faze the bear, which held her down a few more moments, then left the way the cubs had gone. Feliz waited a few minutes before staggering back to the trail, her right arm hanging useless, with a crushed brachial artery, her left arm held against her bleeding torso. Sky reappeared, and when they reached a road Feliz flagged down a passing car. "I know about bears. I've lived here 12 years," she said. "I'm not blaming anybody else. The bear was the bear and did what bears do."
Brown Bear Mauls Man on Kodiak Island
In October 2000, a 53-year-old man who had been on bear watch at a federal clean-up site on Kodiak Island was mauled by a large grizzly. Charles Brent Hudson of Houston suffered a laceration to his neck, a broken rib, a crushed thumb and puncture wounds to his shoulder and buttocks, Alaskan State troopers said. [Source: Peter Porco Anchorage Daily News, October 10, 2000 ^*^]
Peter Porco wrote in the Anchorage Daily News, “Reached at the hospital, Hudson said he had gotten pretty beat up during an attack that lasted all of 30 to 45 seconds. Hudson, the health and safety officer for Jacob's Engineering, was working as a "bear guard" at an Army Corps of Engineers cleanup site near the east side of Lake Catherine outside the city of Kodiak, troopers said. He carried no firearm. ^*^
“Hudson was alone in a wooded area not more than half a mile from other workers on heavy equipment, said Fish and Wildlife Protection Troopers Sgt. Joanna Roop. "He heard something come up behind him," Roop said. "He thinks the bear was bedded down in the timber and within about 20 feet of where he initially heard him, and the victim tried to run for some dense trees, and the bear came up behind him." ^*^
“He said the grizzly "ran me down and bowled me over," Roop said. Hudson curled into a ball on the ground, facedown, with his hands covering his head in the classic play-dead posture sometimes recommended by bear experts. The bear, which he described as a dark boar, rolled him over twice and then ran off, Roop said. Hudson called for help on his radio and was eventually airlifted to the hospital in a Coast Guard helicopter. The bear did not return to the area, Roop said. Investigators determined the bear did not stalk Hudson, nor did Hudson have any food on him, she said. The bear apparently had not been wounded in any way. So authorities did not pursue it. ^*^
Bear Kills, Eats Man in Alaska
In July 2000, in a rare predatory attack, a brown bear killed and partially ate a man at a campground a few miles from a bear-viewing site in far southeast Alaska. George Tullos, 41, was found at the Run Amuck campground near Hyder, a small community on the Canadian border about 75 miles northeast of Ketchikan. "It was not a matter of slapping him around. The bear ate on him,'' Alaskan state trooper Sgt. Steve Garrett said. [Source: Associated Press, July 17, 2000 |=|]
Associated Press reported: “After the bear was shot and killed, biologists found the victim's flesh in its stomach, said Bruce Dinneford, regional management coordinator for the state Division of Wildlife Conservation. The U.S. Forest Service maintains a bear-viewing site near Hyder, but the campground is more than three miles away from the tourist attraction, said Paul Larkin, who operates the viewing area. |=|
“The 300-pound male bear showed up about 10 days ago and quickly became a problem for a town of 140 accustomed to bears, rummaging through garbage and scrounging for food. "This was a bear who was an opportunist, taking advantage of what he could find,'' Larkin said. "We don't see many bears like this, thank goodness.'' The night before the attack, Larkin and others tried to trap the bear so it could be moved out of town, but were thwarted by a faulty trigger mechanism in the trap. |=|
“Tullos, who was in Hyder for the summer to work at a restaurant, had apparently gone to the secluded area of the campground to sleep, Larkin said. After his body was found, workers at a nearby sawmill spotted the bear at the dump. Workers shot the animal.
Predatory bear attacks are very rare because bears perceive humans as a threat rather than prey, said Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the state wildlife division. Bartley could recall only three reported cases of bears attacking people and eating them in the past 20 years. The Hyder attack was the first one his agency has heard about in Alaska this year, Bartley said.
Bear Scientist Eaten by Bear, but Did it Kill Him?
In 2004, Alaska woodsman and predator scientist Bart Schleyer was eaten by a grizzly bear but it wasn’t clear whether the bear killed him. Craig Medred wrote in the Anchorage Daily News, “Analysis of bear scat found along the shores of a remote lake in the Yukon Territory has confirmed that Schleyer was eaten by a grizzly bear. Exactly how remains a mystery. Schleyer, who had spent most of his professional life working with dangerous bears and even more dangerous tigers, disappeared in mid-September while on a moose hunting trip to the Reid Lakes, 15 miles east of a tiny cluster of human habitation along the Klondike Highway known as Stewart Crossing. [Source: Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, December 19, 2004 /+]
“An initial search by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found his camp along one of the lakes, but turned up no sign of Schleyer. Canadian friends who went back for a better look after the Mounties left found more. Near where Schleyer's boat was tied to the shoreline down the lake from his camp, friend Dib Williams of Whitehorse and Wayne Curry, a pilot from Pelly Crossing, found arrows in a homemade quiver and Schleyer's meticulously crafted, homemade bow. Next to the bow and arrows, Curry said, was a dry bag full of gear with a crease in it like someone had been sitting there. Curry and Williams thought it looked like the sort of place where someone might sit to try and call bull moose. /+\
“Both thought the scene looked as if Schleyer could have gotten up and wandered away just minutes before. But they had an uneasy feeling, because they knew by then he'd been missing for days. Further investigation, Curry said, revealed an even more troubling discovery -- a face mask with blood and hair in it. Curry and Williams decided to fly back to civilization and summon the Mounties. The law enforcement officials arrived back at the Reid Lakes on Oct. 3 with Yukon conservation officers and enough civilian volunteers to start a grid search of the area near the face mask. /+\
“The search turned up bear and wolf sign, a ball cap, a pair of camouflage pants, a camera, a few bones and part of a skull. The skull, with teeth, made identification possible. From all indications, the discovery of the skull also pretty much brought the search to an end. Searchers never returned to Reid Lakes after finding the few bones.Clothing, or remnants of clothing, from Schleyer's upper body were never found. Nor were his boots. Nor most of his bones. /+\
“The bones found were shipped to a Vancouver pathologist for examination. The pathologist didn't have much to work with in trying to determine how Schleyer might have died, said Yukon coroner Sharon Hanley. All he could conclude, she added, was that the bones had been gnawed on by animals -- one of which, based on the size of bite marks, was a bear. "We don't know if other animals scavenged besides the bear,'' Hanley added. The official cause of death was "undetermined,'' she added. "We didn't really have any choice. It's not all that common to have bear maulings.'' /+\
“Wolf and fox tracks were found in the area of Schleyer's remains. And some bear scat was bagged by a Yukon conservation officer at the scene. The scat turned out to contain bits of human flesh, proving that a bear had indeed eaten Schleyer. Whether it killed him, however, remains an open question. Wildlife experts have staked out opposite camps. All agree that no one will ever know for sure what happened, but there the agreement ends.” /+\
Alaska Hiker Killed by a Single Bear Bite
In May 1999, a man on a day hike in a rural area near Anchorage was killed when a bear bit his head. Associated Press reported: “Kenneth Cates, 53, was found Wednesday morning on a horse trail in a heavily wooded area of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge near his hometown of Soldotna. The attack happened about six miles off a busy road. The area is about 60 miles southwest of Anchorage. His only visible wound was a single bite to the head, said Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the state Division of Wildlife Conservation. [Source: Associated Press, May 26, 1999]
“State and federal wildlife officials were looking for the bear involved in the attack. If the bear is judged to pose a continuing threat to humans it may be killed. Alaskan State troopers said Cates' .280-caliber rifle and two spent shell casings were found near the body, along with traces of blood that suggest that Cates may have wounded the animal. "We don't know if one was a warning shot and one real, or if there were two real shots,'' Bartley said.
Cates' death is the first fatal bear mauling in Alaska since Feb. 8, 1998, when Audelio Luis Cortes, 40, was killed while working on a seismic crew in the Swanson River oil field near Kenai. Cortes also died from a single head bite.
Hiker Photographs Grizzly Bear Just Before It Kills Him
A southern California man killed by a grizzly bear in Alaska's backcountry was shooting photos of the animal that killed him just moments before the attack, a National Park Service official said. CNN reported: “The bear that killed Richard White, 49, was still with his body when rangers found him in Denali National Park, the official said. The San Diego resident had been backpacking alone for three nights when he was mauled to death by the bear, according to a park service statement. Photographs found in his camera revealed that White was watching the bear for at least eight minutes near a river before the attack. "The bear was generally unaware that he was there until the last couple of shots, then his attention turned," park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said. [Source: By Alan Duke, CNN, August 27, 2012 ~]
“The photographs "are not that demonstrative" and show "nothing graphic, or any showing major signs of aggression," McLaughlin said. "We're not sure what happened after the camera was put down." State troopers, park rangers and wildlife biologists, using the photos to identify the "large male bear," shot and killed the animal as it was still "defending the kill site along the Toklat River as the recovery team attempted to reach White's remains," the park service said. ~
“A necropsy of the bear confirmed it was the animal that killed White, the statement said. The first sign of trouble came Friday afternoon, when three hikers noticed an abandoned backpack and signs of a struggle -- including torn clothing and blood -- along the river, the park service said. The hikers went back to a rest area, about three miles to the south, and alerted authorities around 5:30 p.m. About two and a half hours later, park rangers conducting an aerial search spotted at least one grizzly bear and, after touching down, the unidentified victim's remains. ~
The bear intially ran away, but returned to the site a short time later while the rangers were investigating the scene, forcing the rangers to retreat, the park service said. After the bear began to circle around them and as darkness was setting in, the rangers decided to wait to remove the body. The area of the Denali backcountry where the attack occurred was closed "until further notice." About 12 grizzly bears have been living this summer around where Friday's attack occurred, the park said, citing wildlife biologists. This attack is the "first known bear mauling fatality" recorded in Denali National Park and Preserve, according to the park service.
Grizzly Man’s Mauling Recorded on Tape
Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man “is about a man, Timothy Treadwell, who lived among grizzlies as was ultimately eaten by them. Herzog said the story shows that the world is not about peace and harmony but rather “chaos, hostility and murder.” See Humans and Brown Bears
The dying cries of Treadwell and his girlfriend were recorded on tape. Rachel D'oro of Associated Press wrote: “The graphic sounds of a fatal bear attack were recorded, Alaska state troopers discovered while reviewing a tape recovered near the bodies of a wildlife author and his girlfriend. Trooper Chris Hill said Timothy Treadwell may have been wearing a wireless microphone likely activated when he was attacked by the brown bear at Katmai National Park and Preserve. The videotape has audio only; the screen remains blank for the three-minute recording. "They're both screaming. She's telling him to play dead, then it changes to fighting back. He asks her to hit the bear," Hill said. "There's so much noise going on. I don't know what's him and what might be an animal." [Source: Rachel D'oro, Associated Press, October 8, 2003 ^^^]
“The bodies of Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were found near Kaflia Bay after an air taxi pilot arrived to pick them up. The pilot contacted the National Park Service and state troopers to report a brown bear was apparently sitting on top of human remains at the campsite. After rangers arrived one of them shot and killed a large brown bear when the animal charged through the dense brush. Rangers and troopers later killed a smaller bear apparently stalking them. ^^^
“An autopsy on the human remains confirmed the couple were killed by bears. Troopers recovered video and still photography equipment as well as three hours of video footage from the site, across Shelikof Strait from Kodiak Island. Much of the footage is close-up shots of bears for which Treadwell was well-known. Some scenes show bears no more than a few feet from Treadwell, co-author of "Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska." Others show a more timid Huguenard leaning away as bears come close to her on the bank of a river.” ^^^
The film “Grizzly Man” does not air the recording of the attack that killed Treadwell and his girlfriend. Viewers do, however, see Werner Herzog listening to the tape, but Herzog decided not to feature the recording in the film. According to IMDb: “During the attack which claims the life of Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend, a videocamera was left running. While the lens cap was left on the camera does record the last moments of their lives. The tape is now in possession of one of Treadwell's friends, who has never listened to it. Out of respect for Timothy Treadwell and Annie Huguenard, and out of basic human decency, Herzog does not include the recording in the film, although there is a scene of him listening to it. It should be pointed out that since the manner of Treadwell and Huguenard's deaths are known from forensic evidence, including the audio tape would have no instructive value to the film and would only serve to feed the morbid curiosity of many people.”
Survivors of Alaskan Grizzly Bear Maulings
Colleen Sinnott, an elementary school teacher in the Alaska town of Kasilof, and her husband, John Poljacik, were walking their two dogs along a rural trail. The couple was about 100 yards from their car when Sinnott glimpsed what she thought was a moose charging from the alders. It was not a moose. [Source: alaska.com, Anchorage Daily News, October 11, 2005 /~/]
“The bear charged and slammed Sinnott to the ground. She suffered a deep gash along her head and shoulder injuries. Alaska.com reported: “Sinnott, 50, suffered serious injuries to her head, chest and side and was taken to Central Peninsula General Hospital, troopers said in a statement. Sinnott and Poljacik, an architect, had parked at a pullout and were walking their two 7-month-old Newfoundland puppies when they spied a brown bear in the distance and turned back, trooper Terrence Shanigan told the Peninsula Clarion. /~/
“Sinnott went down, unable to grab her pepper spray in time, then crouched behind a tree. She told Shanigan that the whole thing was "just a flash," the Clarion reported. Sinnott told her husband that he should go find the dogs while she went to get help. Neither of them realized the seriousness of her injuries at the time, troopers said later. /~/
“Sinnott flagged down a car within a few minutes, and troopers received a cell phone report of the attack about 3:40 p.m.The driver took Sinnott to Watson Lake on the Sterling Highway, where she was transferred to a Central Emergency Services ambulance and taken to the hospital. It turned out Sinnott suffered from a large slash that opened her scalp across the back of her head, a wound hidden under her long hair, Shanigan told the Clarion. /~/
In July 2011, a grizzly that was with her cub attacked a group of seven teens participating in a survival skills course, badly injuring two in the group. According to CBS affiliate KTVA: “The teens were towards the end of a 30-day backcountry course by the National Outdoor Leadership School when the attack occurred about 120 miles north of Anchorage. The attack took place in the evening. The victims were rescued the morning after the attack. NOLS spokesman Bruce Palmer says another group of seven students and three instructors has been waiting about six miles away for a helicopter hired by the Lander, Wyo.-based organization. Palmer says 17-year-old Joshua Berg of New City, N.Y., and 17-year-old Samuel Gottsegen of Denver were the worst injured with bear bite wounds. Teens told troopers that the bear was first spotted around 8:30 p.m. Saturday while crossing a river single file, KTVA reports. Those at the front of the line screamed the news of the approaching bear to those at the back. Troopers said that the two teens at the front of the line received the brunt of the bear attack.[Source: CBS, Associated Press, July 24, 2011]
Man Survives Terrifying Bear Attack in Southeast Alaska
In May 2016, man was attacked by a grizzly bear in Alaska and said he felt lucky to be alive. ABC News reported: “Kenny Steck, his wife Hannah and six family members were hiking in Southeastern Alaska May 13 when he encountered the predator while filling up water bottles. Steck, an experienced outdoorsman, had left his bear repellent back at camp. The massive animal then came charging at him. "It was a feeling of complete hopelessness and helplessness, really. I felt like I couldn't do anything to make it stop or make the outcome change," he told ABC News today. [Source: Aditi Roy and Emily Shapiro, ABC News, May 22, 2016]
“When Steck lifted his leg up to protect himself, the bear clawed it. “He tried yelling, but the bear crushed his shoulder and put Steck's head in his mouth. "All I could do was just hope and pray," he said. "It was terrifying." Then suddenly the bear let go and ran away. Luckily, his wife and three other family members on the trip are nurses and were able to treat his wounds right away.
“Steck suffered injuries to his leg, shoulder and head, but the bear miraculously avoided his skull, his wife Hannah said. He's expected to make a full recovery. "We consider it a miracle," Hannah told ABC News. "It wasn't Kenny's time to go last Friday," she said. "We don't understand it. ... But we are really thankful for it." It was the third bear mauling reported to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game so far that year, Ken Marsh, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told ABC News. All three incidents have involved brown bears or grizzly bears, Marsh said.
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Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.
Last updated May 2025