A U.S. Army soldier who stumbled upon a brown bear lair and was surprised by a “brown table flash” was killed in a bear attack Tuesday while exploring a desert at an Alaska military base, a wildlife official said.
Three soldiers stumbled upon the lair while designing a training ground for a land navigation course at the Elmendorf-Richardson Joint Base in Anchorage, said Captain Derek DeGraaf, commander of Alaska’s Northern Squad Wildlife Troopers, a wildlife law enforcement agency. . The arrival of the soldiers made the mother bear or pig crawl out, he said. She escaped after knocking down one soldier and attacking another, who later died.
“From the soldier’s point of view, there was a glimmer of brown mass,” he said. “They were attacked and did not even see him.
The soldier who was shot down was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and released, Captain DeGraaf said. The Joint Army and Air Force Base declined to disclose the name of the deceased soldier on Wednesday, pending family notice, and did not provide further details about other soldiers involved in the episode. Captain DeGraaf said the two soldiers were about 30 years old.
The U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Department is investigating, as it does with all unexpected deaths, soldiers in military posts, said Patrick Barnes, a spokesman for the agency. The area is closed for recreation, the base said in a statement.
U.S. Wildlife Forces learned of the bear attack around 1:50 p.m. Tuesday and responded to the scene with members of the Alaska Fish and Game Division and the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, Captain DeGraaf said. A squadron of security forces on the 673rd wing of the air base initially responded, the base said.
Bear attacks are rare in Anchorage, and even in the woods, soldiers have spied, bear dens are unusual, said Captain DeGraaf. These naturally camouflaged underground dugouts are often in a remote desert – not unlike the training area – but usually at higher altitudes in mountains and hills, he said. People often do not recognize bear dens until later in the year, he said, when more bears have crawled out of hibernation and more tracks can be seen on the ground.
Ten people died after bear attacks in Alaska between 2000 and 2017, according to a study by the Alaska Epidemiology Section, and 68 people were hospitalized for injuries from such attacks. In comparison, 467 people were hospitalized from dog bites during this time.
The majority of hospitalized victims in the study were white men – mostly people working outdoors and entertainment – attacked by brown bears. One of the victims was a soldier. These attacks were most common during the summer months in the southern coastal region of the state along the Gulf of Alaska. The study found that bears often attack after being startled or threatened and many of them were pigs trying to protect their young.
Although rare, bear attacks appear to be increasing worldwide, the study said, due to overlapping habitats with human population growth and outdoor recreation.
Wildlife workers in the Anchorage area have received more calls to observe bears in the past week and a half as creatures come out of hibernation, Captain DeGraaf said. More bears roam the city, he added, like the black bear he saw near the fence during a softball game this week, “sleeping as if it had just woken up.” People in the area usually encounter “garbage diving bears” rummaging through the garbage.
According to Captain DeGraaf, the troops were about a mile from Pole Line Road in a shady wooded area where small pockets of snow still cling to the ground after a snowy year in the area. A helicopter was sent to find the bear, but the crew struggled to search through the thick canopy, he added. He said the soldiers stayed late until Tuesday night to see if the pig would return, but she did not, leaving her young alone in her lair.
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