A tourist in Anchorage sustained minor injuries Sunday night when a black bear swatted at her several times and made contact twice in what a wildlife official called an “extremely rare” encounter on the city’s extensive urban trail system.
The unidentified victim was walking near Mile 7 of the popular Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in the Point Woronzof area near the runway of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport around 6 o’clock, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
The woman and a bicyclist spotted the bear about 50 yards away and it kept walking down the trail in their direction as they retreated. It then wandered in the woods parallel to the trail about 25 yards away.
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“The victim felt that the bear had stopped walking in her direction, so she stopped at this sign that was alongside the trail and then the bear popped out at the sign,” Dave Battle, Anchorage area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told ADN.
“And the victim and the bear circled the sign for several minutes. The lady was trying to keep the sign between her and the bear.”
The bear then began swatting at the woman, striking her twice.
Battle described the woman as “remarkably calm” and said, “She didn’t try to run from the bear or anything like that, she kept the sign between her and the bear and was just trying to scare it off.”
Eventually, it was the noise made by people nearby that caused the bear to halt its attack and wander off.
Battle didn’t think the woman sought immediate medical attention.
It’s extremely rare for bears to interact with humans on the city’s extensive urban trail system, Battle told ADN.
“We don’t know exactly what it was doing, but the fact that it came that close and was having that kind of an interaction, kept circling the sign — we don’t know whether it was predatory behavior for sure, but it’s certainly behavior we don’t want to see in a black bear,” Battle told ADN.
A woman was injured Sunday night when a black bear swatted at her in what wildlife officials called a highly unusual encounter on Anchorage’s Coastal Trail. https://t.co/YBXKYK3N5o
— Anchorage Daily News (@adndotcom) August 15, 2022
A sign was posted on the trail stating, “An adult black bear approached a hiker and made contact, inflicting minor injuries. Incident occurred near Mile 7. Use this trail with caution, pay attention to surroundings, and carry bear spray.”
According to the ADFG, Anchorage residents share the municipality with up to 350 American black bears and up to 65 brown bears.
This was the first report of a bear encounter like this in that area this year. But an Army soldier was attacked and killed, and another soldier was injured in a remote area of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in May. And a man was wounded in an Eagle River attack. Both involved brown bears with cubs.
Photo courtesy of Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
