[Paddlewise] bear attack-for real

All jokes aside this bear attack was for real!





    I just visited at the hospital  a kayaker from Juneau, who was atttacked
and bitten by a brown bear near Angoon on Admirality Island here in Southeast
Alaska. Admirality has the highest concentration of brown bear in the world
and the Tlingit call it Kootznnwoo meaning "the fortress of the bear"


    His story is that he was solo kayaking camping near Angoon. On sunday
morning after packing up most of his gear he was in the process of putting on
his dry suit when "a sixth sense told him something was near". He turned to
see a bear "10 to 15 feet  from him". He told me he felt if he could get to
the water he could get away from the bear but as he ran to the water the bear
grabbed him on the back of the upper portion of his leg, bit him once then let
him go and ran into the woods.


    At this point he had to retreve his paddle , spray skirt and pfd which
were still "up at the campsite" He said though scared he had to go up and get
them even though it meant exposing himself to another attack. The bear never
appeared. 


    He paddled back to Angoon but had to wait for the tide to change at a
tidal rapids. while waiting he called into a local lodge (I forgot to ask what
type of radio or cell phone he had) when the local lodge owner heard his story
he sent a power boat to get him and had the emt's ready. he was medivacked to
Sitka and he was released from the hospital this afternoon and flew back home
to Juneau. The main concern is infection from the bite.





 COMMENTS:  This has been a bad summer in Southeast Alaska for human / bear
encounters. A camper was killed near Hyder by a brown bear. Appearently he was
camped in an area heavily traveled by brown bears and the state biologists
described it as a rare predatory attack by a brown bear. 


Last week two brown bear were shot in Sitka (both within a quarter mile of my
house). the salmon run is late this year so the bears are wandering around
town for food. both bears were going after people's pet goats and chickens.


also last saturday a fun alpine race turned frightening as the lead runner ran
between a bear and her cub. the bear charged but a race offical shot over it's
head and the bear ran away.


    Where the kayaker was attacked is an area where sockeye salmon are
currently spawning (although he was not at the creek itself.) so my guess is
there were many bears in the area and the aggression may have been a by
product of the heavily concerntration of bears in each others territory. Also
I would guess that the bear was startled by the man's presence,  sometimes
bears blunder or graze their way into camp without realizing humans are near
by. Running from the bear may have triggered the attack but that may have
happened anyway due to the closeness of the bear. It is easy to say "don't run
from a bear" but in real life we all might find ourselves saying "feet don't
fail me know"


    the best lesson to gather from this is to always be on alert when in bear
country and keep a communication devise handy in case of the worse.


Also the kayaker said "next time I will keep my gun or bear spray on me" so
what ever deterent you carry keep it handy.












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