"I'm from Manhattan, and was young at the time... ignorant. My first thought when I heard it was: 'Oh, there's heavy machinery digging up a tree here,' because it sounded like a crane. Then nothing. Then it knocked over another tree. But of course, there was no heavy machinery up there. The only useful thing I'd learned was to yell like hell at them. My curses ranged from Brooklyn to the Bronx that night. This kept it at bay for long enough for me to walk my sorry-self out of there. Funny thing is, I'd been a gun-control advocate. Maybe five minutes of that bear following me, and I wanted a bazooka. Context is everything. The largest Brown Bear discovered in Alaska was 13 feet tall, weighing roughly 1500 lbs. Each pound of muscle is roughly 25x stronger than your muscles. Oh, and they can sprint 35mph, so you can't run. But at least they teach us to curse in NY."
That's a comment someone put up on a NYT article that has the headline, "A Grizzly Bear Terrorized a Man for Days in Alaska. The Coast Guard Saw His SOS. Down to his last rounds of ammunition, with bruises and a leg injury, the man was rescued by a helicopter crew that just happened by."
Here's another comment, displaying some first-class cynicism: "He probably just needed a ride home. Air taxi, courtesy of the USA." Oh, you thought that too, didn't you? No? What an angel you are!
“At some point, a bear had dragged him down to the river,” Lt. Cmdr. Jared Carbajal, one of the pilots of the Coast Guard helicopter, said in an interview on Wednesday. “He had a pistol. He said that the bear kept coming back every night and he hadn’t slept in a few days.”
Did the bear want him or not?!
“We don’t really come across people in the middle of nowhere,” Lieutenant Hammac said. “He was kind of struggling. When we came around, he was on his hands and knees waving a white flag.” Lieutenant Hammac said the man’s leg was taped. “He definitely looked like he had been out there for a while,” he said.
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Here's another skeptical comment at the NYT:
"What is odd about the story is he was out in bear country armed only with a "pistol," and nearly out of ammunition. So how many times did he shoot the bear without killing it? Most bears, even grizzlies, can be discouraged and will back off of an encounter unless enraged or protecting a kill or cubs, or unless starving, which is less likely this early in summer. This bear dragged him down to the river, but did not inflict extremely serious injuries? And then kept returning despite being shot at, and eventually took off the doors of the buildings? Do bears practice revenge? Or was the bear, (excuse the pun,) completely unhinged?"
Scott writes:
"I thought the guy was lost or something. Maybe he was dehydrated and couldn't make it back to his camp. I tried to help him for days, but he just wandered around wasting his energy screaming at me and waiving that useless little pistol around. Jackass even took a few shots at me. Good thing he couldn't shoot straight 'cause I'm a pretty big target. I finally got tired of his antics and drug him down to the river so he could at least get a drink and maybe someone would find him. He was fighting like crazy and ended up hurting himself. Eventually someone did find him so I just went back about my business thinking there goes a few days I'll never get back."
MartyH writes:
Good morning Professor-
Thanks for the bear story- next week I leave for two weeks of hiking and fishing in Alaska!
I went to high school in Anchorage and am visiting family. Bears are apex predators and the behavior described is IMO normal.
Here is an article from a jogger that was killed on the outskirts of Anchorage one year when I was up:
https://www.adn.com/uncategorized/article/park-grizzly-suspected-attack-jogger-killed/2008/08/20/
This bear repeatedly chased people and had probably mauled a cyclist before killing the jogger.
Regarding the man who was rescued by the Coast Guard:
Bears return to their kills. They can’t eat a fully grown moose in a single sitting. In the article cited above, Fish & Game waited by a moose carcass for the killer bear to show up.
The bear may have believed the person was dead. It’s easier to wound prey and wait for it to die than kill it outright.
Common advice is to play dead if attacked by a grizzly and it might go away.
Regarding the door being ripped off: in my quick perusal I could not find where the bear tore it off. The significance of the door is that the building could not offer protection.
Regarding only having a pistol-a rifle may not be in reach when suddenly and viciously attacked by a bear.
IMO, there is nothing unusual in either incident.
Curt writes:
"If this guy encountered a bear in the Alaska wilderness, he’s lucky to be around to tell the story. I arrived in Juneau in January 1980. The first article I read in the local newspaper was about a boot found outside of Hoonah, Alaska, a village on an island not far from Skagway. The interesting thing about the boot was that it contained a human foot. The rest of the human was never found."
LA_Bob writes:
"If I could I'd upvote Scott's comment. But, I'm a little suspicious. It sounds like the bear is making up a story. Bears don't like to 'fess up about the Ones that Got Away."
I'll say:
Scott's comment is one of the best ever.
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