On Sunday morning, a woman jogging near an Air Force base in Alaska whose two cubs were nearby. After suffering lacerations on her neck, arms, and legs, the woman walked two miles before meeting a benevolent passerby who drove her to the hospital at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. She was later transferred to the Alaska Native Medical Center and is now in stable condition.
The woman, who has requested to not be identified, was initially jogging with her husband, a soldier stationed at the nearby base. Not long after parting ways, she turned a corner and startled the seven- to eight-foot mother bear, which took a defensive pose before attacking.
“In this particular case, the runner turned the corner at the wrong time and wrong place,” , an Air Force spokesperson.
Mark Sledge, senior conservation law enforcement officer at Elmendorf-Richardson, . “The survival instinct for that woman is phenomenal,” he said. “The trauma that she went through and the walk out was heroic.”
Most people know that it’s best to avoid confrontations with wild bears. Still, accidents like this happen, which is why we like to give our readers advice on what to do in the event of an unexpected run-in with our ursine cohabitants.