The Anchorage Police Department said that officers used a drone to locate and monitor this brown bear while first responders rescued a woman who sustained non-life-threatening injuries in an encounter with a brown bear while hiking in the Bear Valley area on Saturday, July 18. (Screengrab from Anchorage Police Department video)
A hiker on a South Anchorage trail above the Bear Valley neighborhood was hospitalized after a bear mauling Saturday that officials described as most likely a surprise encounter at close range.
The hiker was with another person and three dogs, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The bear emerged from a dense stand of alder trees on a narrow, switchback trail uphill from Bear Valley, the department said in a statement Monday afternoon. The area borders Chugach State Park.
The bear emerged from the alder and “made brief contact with one of the hikers” before it moved on, the statement said. “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 hiker’s dog was later found unhurt by a different group of hikers and returned home, Fish and Game said. All three dogs were off leash at the time of the incident, according to Cyndi Wardlow, Southcentral regional supervisor for the state Division of Wildlife Conservation.
Fish and Game officials have received multiple reports of brown bears in the Hillside neighborhood areas this summer, including both single bears and at least one sow with a cub, Wardlow said. The agency is putting up signs and flagging at trailheads in the area warning people of the recent bear activity.
White there have been other reported bear sightings in the Bear Valley area this summer, Fish and Game has not received any reports of interactions with aggressive animals or bears behaving unusually, Wardlow said.
“This was likely a surprise encounter at close range, especially with the high winds and low visibility from the trail in this area,” she said.
Anchorage police and fire departments, as well as Alaska State Troopers, responded at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday to the incident, police said in an online statement.
The hiker was found about a half-mile up a trail from Kenai Terrace Road and Brewsters Drive by officers who hiked up to her location, police spokesperson Gina Romero said Monday. Police said the woman’s injuries were not life-threatening.
Firefighters also hiked in, rendered aid, helped the woman off the trail and took her to the hospital, fire department spokesperson Megan Peters said.
A police department drone spotted a single brown bear on a nearby hillside, and a moose kill has been reported nearby, Fish and Game officials said. Reports of black and brown bears are made every year in the areas around the Bear Valley neighborhood.
Police said officers used the drone to monitor the bear’s activity “to ensure that first responders and the injured hiker remained safe during the rescue.”
The incident was the latest of several bear incidents reported this season, at least one other involving what appeared to be another surprise encounter. A Kenai woman who fired a shotgun at a sow with cubs in her yard earlier this month was injured in an attack on her front deck.
Last month, a mountain biker was injured in a bear attack on the Dome Trail on the Hillside. The man was able to self-rescue, authorities have said.
Earlier this year, two U.S. Army soldiers on a training exercise were injured in a mauling in April at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson after they were attacked by a male brown bear near a den site.
Numerous Anchorage neighborhoods border large green spaces like Chugach State Park and Bicentennial Park, where existing bear populations combined with hikers and other people recreating increase the potential for encounters even next to roads.
Generally, wildlife biologists warn, private and public trails throughout Southcentral Alaska are overgrown this time of year, with tall grass and leafed-out brush increasing the odds of surprise wildlife encounters. They recommend traveling in groups, making noise, carrying deterrent, having control of pets and carrying communication devices when out hiking.
Making sure bears can’t get into garbage cans, animal food or livestock enclosures also limits the animals from lingering in residential areas, Fish and Game officials said in Monday’s statement.
The department and other public safety agencies are monitoring reports of bear activity in the area of Saturday’s encounter. Anyone who sees a brown bear can report encounters online or call Fish and Game in Anchorage at 907-267-2257 or Alaska Wildlife Troopers at 907-352-5401.
