Woman attacked by bear while hiking with friend and dogs in Alaska

A woman was attacked and injured by a bear while hiking with a friend and three dogs in southern Alaska, authorities said. 

The attack happened Saturday at around 5:30 p.m. local time, according to Anchorage Police, as the woman hiked along what the Alaska Department of Fish and Game called “a social trail” in an area known as Bear Valley. She encountered the bear on a precarious stretch of the trail, which the Fish and Game Department described as narrow, switch-backed and overgrown with “heavy vegetation and low visibility.”

“High winds and inclement weather conditions at the time of the encounter may have increased the chance that the bear was surprised by the hikers and their dogs, even if they were making noise,” the agency said in a statement about the incident.

Fire officials were able to locate the woman, carry her down the trail and take her to a nearby hospital for treatment, police said. Her injuries are not considered life-threatening.

Although the Fish and Game Department said initial reports indicated that one of the dogs was killed in the attack, it later confirmed those were “fortunately proven untrue,” as a different hiking group later found the dog uninjured.

Police used drones to survey the area and pinpoint the bear’s whereabouts to ensure the injured woman’s rescue took place safely, which is a protocol they have begun to follow over the last year, the police department said.

This attack involved a brown bear, one of several bear species that exist in Alaska, in addition to black and polar bears, according to the Fish and Game Department. Hundreds of thousands of bears roam throughout the state, with Alaska wildlife officials estimating that there may be as many as one bear per square mile in southern areas.

Officials have said bear attacks on humans are relatively rare, even in Alaska, which is sometimes referred to as “bear country,” but they do happen. State health officials said 68 people were hospitalized, and 10 died, from injuries suffered in bear attacks in Alaska between 2000 and 2017.

Another bear attack happened earlier this month, in Kenai, which is farther south than the hiking trail where last weekend’s occurred. In that incident, a local resident was mauled by a brown bear that had climbed over the fence into her front yard, with its two cubs, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety. 

The resident had exited her home to take her two dogs outside when she encountered the bears and fired three or four rounds from her shotgun in hopes of scaring them away. The grown bear proceeded to attack her, state troopers said, noting that the resident sustained serious injuries. 

Last week, a bear was euthanized after officials said the animal killed a married couple in Saskatchewan, Canada.