Bear attacks in northern Alaska (Anchorage, Barrow: condo, attorney, construction)

[stiffnecked]

What if Carl had been carrying a handgun in addition to his knife? Maybe he would have been around to see the birth of his daughter. Or maybe not. But it's far better to be prepared than just end up being dead meat.
Read the story for yourself. Mod Cut

adn.com | Alaska bear attacks : Man dies saving wife from polar bear



Carl Stalker died battling a 7-foot polar bear with a pocket knife Saturday, but he didn't lose the fight. His wife, eight months pregnant, is still alive.


Stalker, 28, and his common-law wife, Rhoda Long, were in the middle of the village of Point Lay at about 4 a.m. Saturday when they were attacked by a polar bear. Stalker fought the bear to allow Long to escape, his family said. Two hours later, villagers found his body a quarter of a mile away and killed the bear.

Residents of Point Lay, a village of about 150 people on the Arctic Ocean coast between Point Hope and Wainwright, were afraid to go outside Sunday because of the bears they might encounter in the near-constant darkness, and were wondering how to get their children to school this morning.

But a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official said the attack Saturday was extremely rare, and no other deaths caused by polar bears have occured in decades.

12/1/1993~Polar Bear Mauls Man at Arctic Coastal Radar Site

A polar bear which had been prowling around an Arctic coast military radar facility crashed through a window of the facility, mauled a worker there, and was killed in the facility library last night. The severely injured man, a nonmilitary construction worker identified as Donald L. Chaffin, was flown to the ARCO Kuparuk medical facility, and later to an Anchorage hospital where he was in intensive care. The incident was reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), which has jurisdiction over polar bears, late last night.

adn.com | alaska : Victims of bear attack were wilderness vets

Alaska Couple Killed in Bear Attack

Necropsy yields no clues about why bear killed Alaska couple

An Anchorage attorney and his retired schoolteacher wife, both cautious veterans of the Alaska wilderness, were identified Monday as the victims of a rare, unprovoked attack by a predatory grizzly bear in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, state and local officials said.

Larry Kanuit doesn't make these stories up. They really happened. You can learn a lot about what to do and not to do. They are well worth the price.

Bear Attacks and Other Stories by Alaskan Author Larry Kaniut

Another interesting site about bear attacks.

List of fatal bear attacks in North America by decade: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

No reason that you can't go out and enjoy life. Just sometimes you need to think, plan and prepare ahead. Don't stick your head in the sand and think it can't happen to you.

[Glitch]

Gee, someone might get the impression that bears are dangerous.

[NorthWord]

In the one story that I have second-hand knowledge of, Mr. Kanuit's writings were accurate -sensationalized for story-telling purposes, but the facts were all there.

Also, his writings reflect interviews with folks who might have some adrenlin soaked memories. Factual, yes. Totally accurate, maybe. Unless the author was standing on the scene, taking notes, he's at the mercy of the storytellers.

Kreig Sharpe's bear is/was on display at the hanger that serves as Range Control for Ft. Greely. Its claws are over 4" long. Mounted, the bear is well over 8' tall.
No spray bottle full of Tabasco derivitive would convince that monster that you don't look tasty. Bullets brought it down. Several bullets.

Bears are beautiful animals, and I don't condone the trophy killing of them. I've always considered myself lucky to be close enough to see them, but I've always considered myself more lucky to have walked away from the encounter.

They do make concussion/noise rounds in 12ga. that may make a bear turn tail, but you'd be wise to back those up with lead just in case.

[stiffnecked]

Another interesting and very informative site on bear safety. It won't be long until breakup. We're on the down hill side. Hibernating time will be over.

Bear Safety

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

What if Carl had been carrying a handgun in addition to his knife.

He would probably have been in violation of the law, given that he was intoxicated and had just left a party. And almost certainly just as dead.

"But a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official said the attack Saturday was extremely rare, and no other deaths caused by polar bears have occured in decades."

That is the only polar bear fatality that you can find in the past 30 or more years, and certainly does not support your exaggerated claims. It tends to indicate that moose in Anchorage are much more dangerous, as are brown bears and black bears. In fact, the neighbor's dog is more likely to kill you than a polar bear.

Odd too, that we just don't see anybody walking around in the villages or here in Barrow with weapons for bear protection. I've never seen a pickup truck with a gun rack on the back window here, for example. We've all got guns, and when we go hunting we use them... but not too many are being used for "protection". Even when they butcher whales on the beach, I've never seen a visible gun anywhere other than the whale gun in the boat. Out on the ice it's different, and there is virtually always someone at each camp with a ready gun. (And no it won't be a pistol!)

[RayinAK]

A Century of Bear-Human Conflict in Alaska

[mal_flisk]

Personally, I have been in Barrow about once a year (sometimes more often), and have never felt the need for a gun. Of course this is just my personal observation, and my opinions are usually worth less than the $.02 you feel obligated to offer from time to time.

[Glitch]

It is always better to have a weapon and not need it, than to need a weapon and not have it. It is those very tools that propelled humans to the top of the food chain. Without them, we are bait.

I fully support unarmed idiots wandering around bear country, the overall human species will be improved with their demise. Thankfully, Timothy Tredwell did not breed before he was consumed.

[Crossfire600]

Originally Posted by Glitch

It is always better to have a weapon and not need it, than to need a weapon and not have it. It is those very tools that propelled humans to the top of the food chain. Without them, we are bait.

I fully support unarmed idiots wandering around bear country, the overall human species will be improved with their demise. Thankfully, Timothy Tredwell did not breed before he was consumed.

I agree with you on that one Glitch. I guess there are those who feel perfectly safe without protection and others who would rather have protection. If push comes to shove, me personally, I would rather have a hand full of rounds to try and even the fight than curl up in a ball and pray. It does not hurt me one bit to carry a pistol on a trip. I hope I never have to make the decision to use one but at least I have the option. It's like my father used to tell me when we went hunting.. Dress heavy, you can always take clothes off if you get to hot but you can't put on what you don't have. I guess it's your comfort level. If your comfortable in bear country without any protection good for you! If not and you can shoot accurately under pressure then by all means carry some fire power.

I have never read a bear mauling story were they said that the person attacked was a stupid a$$ for carrying a weapon..

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Larry Kanuit doesn't make these stories up. They really happened. You can learn a lot about what to do and not to do. They are well worth the price.

I know four of the guys in his books, haven't read the last one though, may be more.

One of them worked for me when I had a shop in Anchorage years back, the other worked for me during the EXXON Valdez oil spill cleanup, another was a friend, and the fourth just passed away, he owned a restaurant for years in Eagle River, the "North Slope Restaurant" he started in the '70's, then sold a few years ago.

Only one was badly mauled though and had his scalp ripped off but was sewn back on, all but an ear, with long hair, you couldn't tell he had been attacked. One other got some bite marks with his back pack on covering the bear from chewing on his head and neck, and the other two, got new "Fruit-of-the-Looms" after the encounter.

Funny part was, not one of them was doing the same thing, all the attacks came under different events.

The last few days we were running the boats out of the oil fields this last summer, they hadn't turned on all the flood lights in the morning darkness before the boats carrying the seismic crews out were loaded and headed to work. A polar bear was sleeping under the front end loader by the there, when they all looked up he was standing on the beach bluff about fifteen feet up overlooking the boats, they got about sixteen guys into the one boat cabin/bridge, which is only about four feet by six.

Then one of them stepped out to get a photo and when the flash went off they started to scream at him that he was letting the polar bear know where they were hiding... That is when we yelled on the PA system from our boat that he already knew where they were at....

The Security came by and started shooting shotgun rounds at it that had "Cracker rounds" that explode, and it ran off.

If you live in Alaska long enough, everyone will know of someone that had some negative encounters at one time or another.

When I was a kid growing up in Eagle River, we had a neighbor's big black dog that would come from almost a half mile down the road and knock over our burn barrel and spread ash all over the yard looking for something to eat, all we saw was his butt as he headed for the trees.

One morning my mom looked out the window and saw the dog's black butt sticking out of the knocked over burn barrel and went out and kicked it in the butt. While she was screaming at it to get out of the yard, it backed out of the barrel and at that point she realized it was a black bear with really big eyes, and it took off like a shot. We never had the barrel knocked over after that again. Guess we were blaming the wrong black critter....