
One of Anchorage’s not always friendly neighbors/Craig Medred photo
With a soldier dead at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) on the edge of Alaska’s largest city, the state’s first fatal bear attack of 2022 was making national news on Tuesday.
First reported by KTUU-TV in Anchorage, the story was quickly rocketing through the tubes with pretty much the same headline – “US Army Soldier Dies After Bear Attack in Alaska” – from California on the West Coast to Connecticut on the East and from Minnesota in the north to Florida in the south.
What exactly happened remains unclear.
JBER was reporting only that a “U.S. Army Alaska soldier died of injuries sustained in a bear attack today in a training area west of the Anchorage Regional Landfill.”
The soldier was not identified nor was the species of the bear. Both black and grizzly bears roam the greater than 64,000-acre of the base, most of it still wild land. The base has in the past been the scene of attacks by both species of bears.
There have been no fatalities in recent years, but a young California woman running on the base was seriously mauled in 2014.
Close call
“I paused then for a few minutes … maybe two, laying there, and telling myself, ‘I think pretty much this is how I’m going to die,” she said, but the bear, a sow grizzly with cubs, then left her.
Such behavior is not unusual. Sow grizzlies are often aggressively protective of their young, but most people who have played dead after being attacked by such bears have survived. The belief is that the sows go back to their cubs after deciding that the threat to their young has been neutralized.
That is not, however, always the case.
The death of 44-year-old Michael Soltis was an eye-opener for many in the Anchorage Metropolitan Area, home to more than half of Alaska’s population, who had long believed that all attacks by grizzly sows could be survived by the victim of the attack playing dead and waiting for the bear to wander off with her cubs.
Grizzlies versus blacks
Grizzly bears are the deadliest bears in the 49th state, but black bears have proven themselves capable of killing humans as well. The year 2017 was a particularly bad one for humans and black bears.
The latter attack was characteristic; the former not.
“…Black bears, especially those found in rural and remote areas, will
on rare occasions attempt to prey, or will prey, on people,” noted Canadian bear biologist Stephen Herrero and colleague d Susan Fleck concluded in 2009 after studying decades of bear attack data.
The JBER attack happened in regularly used Training Area 412 where both U.S. Army and Marine soldiers train on assault tactics. They do not normally carry bear spray for protection in such training, and live ammunition in rifles is prohibited for safety reasons.
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“…live ammunition in rifles is prohibited for safety reasons.”
–Maybe they should re-consider this policy?
Anchorage isn’t the only city in Alaska with a bear problem. Juneau has its share of bear problems as well, including bears breaking into houses or ambling around parked cars on a city street. Bear spray should be carried by everyone. Near a dump where bears can forage for food? You would think that the military would know better. Even in Southern California in the hillside communities there are bears and coyotes that will wonder around on the streets or in the backyards. The answer – get bear spray! Also keep your pets indoors to protect them not only from bears when you are not walking the pets, but from hungry wolves and other wildlife. Never underestimate the danger around you.
“Grizzly bears are the deadliest bears in the 49th state”.
I have always understood that more people have been killed by black bears than Brown, Grizzly, and Polar Bears combined. And “deadliest”? More powerful, yes, but dead is dead. A predator black bear seems to be the harbinger of certain death. It will not leave until you are dead.
Have listen to Stephen Herrero and read his book. The bear that killed my neighbor along Bird Ridge and the young man who was killed in New Jersey when a large group of people scattered in different directions, were the victims of predator bears. The group in NJ could have fought off the bear if they had stayed in a group.
“…….My only question is was that a Russian bear?……..”
Indeed, this bears ancestors came here from Russia over the magical land bridge because of………..of course………climate change.
Craig, dont forget the wolves on JBER
What kind of military do you have when soldiers can’t carry ammo? Especially in serious bear country and next to the dump.
Come on Jame’s – live ammo – to soldiers – during a Communist coup? Nah….Remember you have to “break a few eggs for an omlette”. 13. My only question is was that a Russian bear? Prayers to the family.