A man was mauled by a brown bear Thursday (9-22-16), on southern Admiralty Island. It’s the fourth incident of its kind in the region since August.
Megan Peters is a spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers.
“At approximately 8:30 in the evening there was a guide and a client that were out walking, using headlamps,” Peters explained, “and it appears that they startled the bear that was a short distance away from them and then the bear mauled and latched onto the client.”
Peters identified the victim as 57 year-old Douglas Adkins from Jenkins, Kentucky. Adkins and his Juneau-based guide were hunting in Chaik Bay near Angoon, about 35 miles northeast of Sitka.
Peters described the mauling as “brief.” A helicopter from Air Station Sitka transported Atkins to Juneau for treatment of his non-life threatening injuries.
There were three similar brown bear incidents along streams in the Sitka area in August, including the serious mauling of a wilderness guide in Sitkoh Bay.
In September, the US Forest Service reported that a tour guide on Kruzof Island used pepper spray to deter a bear which may have been protecting a food cache on the Mud Bay road.