An employee of the Kenai Princess Lodge in Cooper Landing was attacked and injured by a brown bear as she walked to work Tuesday morning, according to Alaska State Troopers and the resort's manager.

Danielle Compton, a 21-year-old Californian, was grabbed and dragged by the bear but fought furiously until it dropped her and ran off, troopers said.

The grizzly bear that mauled a Hoonah woman Friday evening remains at large.

Judy Oliver remains in stable condition today (Tuesday) at Bartlett Regional Hospital's Intensive Care Unit, according to the nursing supervisor.

She was attacked while picking blueberries about ten miles southeast of the village off of the Water Dam Road.

Her husband Carl Oliver had a rifle with him and shot at the bear three times, but it ran off.

A search party looked for the bear Saturday. Alaska State Trooper Andy Savland of the Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement says they were able to track a blood trail below the road where the attack took place.

He says they followed the blood trail for about a mile until they lost it at a river. Savland says they'll be looking for the bear over the next few days and hope to find it dead.

A sign has been posted on the road warning of an injured bear in the area.

Gary Paterna was walking his dog down an overgrown trail in the woods southeast of his Chugach Foothills neighborhood Tuesday evening when a heart-stopping roar erupted behind him.

"I hadn't taken one or two steps when the bear burst out of the brush," he said Wednesday. "It charged down and then it stopped."

It was a grizzly sow, with at least one cub, and it growled upon finding a human so close to its offspring. The encounter was near the boundary of Far North Bicentennial Park, perhaps 1,200 yards from suburban homes and lawns off the Tudor-Muldoon curve.

"What I remember was just how big the head was -- it seemed enormous," Paterna said later. "I was scared. I took another couple steps backward and then it hit me."

The bear swatted his chest and knocked him to the ground so fast that Paterna later wasn't quite sure how it happened. But the dog, a 9-year-old Brittany spaniel named Tok, drew the bear's attention.

The bear pounced on the dog, giving Paterna time to leap to this feet. He saw Tok trapped between the bear's paws and started to back away. He didn't get far.

Twice more, the bear knocked him down. Twice more the dog's presence seemed to interrupt the attack.

"Each time she hit me, it was a matter of backing off and snarling, and it was fast," he said. "More like a body check -- she'd hit me, knock me down and back off quickly."

After the third hit, the bear bolted up the trail, allowing Paterna and Tok to run for the Klutina Drive trail head, where he warned other hikers and called 911.

The 60-year-old grandfather of five suffered scrapes and a sore hip where he'd fallen -- plus five distinct claw marks and a purple bruise across his chest.

From: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorage/story/6856112p-6751904c.html

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A brown bear mauled a 15-year-old Boy Scout from Texas on Friday near Cooper Landing, Alaska State Troopers said. After undergoing surgery, the boy was listed in fair condition at an Anchorage hospital.

Alex Benson, who was on a six-day hike with his home state Scout troop, was working on his 50-mile badge hiking the Resurrection Pass Trail from Hope to Cooper Landing. Just half an hour from the end of the hike, he startled the brown bear on the trail and was bitten at least twice before the bear ran off. The boy was left with a shredded arm and puncture wounds in his leg.

Benson, interviewed at his hospital bed, described the bear, which also swatted at the teenager while he was on the ground, as twice his size.

Benson was among two dozen 13- to 16-year-old boys and their fathers who left Texas last week for the Boy Scout trip to Alaska. Trip leader and former Alaska resident Paul Fletcher planned the hike for Troop 262 of Plano, Texas, near Dallas. He schooled the boys and adults on bear safety, and three fathers carried handguns and four boys carried bear spray on the trek.

The plan was to walk the 40-mile Resurrection Pass Trail, with side hikes to complete the 50-mile badge requirement.

Resurrection Pass Trail on the Kenai Peninsula is bear country. The Russian River, where a brutal mauling occurred two years ago, is about five miles away. The Scouts said they had spotted several bears on the hills they were passing in previous days -- always at a safe distance though.

Thursday morning, the men and boys were split into three groups, with Benson in a group of four that was leading by several hours. The terrain was thick with brush, and the trail narrowed to single file with quick turns that made seeing just a short distance in front difficult, according to interviews with scouts.

Around 9:30 a.m., Benson was in the lead with two boys and an adult immediately behind. The weather was chilly and the boys were excited to be close to the finish. Benson later told friends he was daydreaming of his mother's pumpkin bread, Chicken McNuggets and pizza.

Despite their bear-awareness training, which emphasized that the hikers make noise, Mikey McFatter, 13, said the group was silent. The four were spaced around seven paces behind each other. McFatter, in a telephone interview, said he couldn't hear his father behind him or his friend in front of him.

Then Benson turned a corner and nearly fell on top of the bear. "I think I caught it going to the bathroom," Benson said.

He doesn't remember what the bear bit first -- his leg or his arm. But he remembers its head right next to his, its teeth in him, and it thrashing. He remembers being on his stomach, with his backpack taking the brunt of the attack.

McFatter saw the bear leap onto his friend's backpack and rip the sleeping bag. Benson screamed for help and put his hands and legs up to shield himself.

McFatter and Aaron Chapman, 15, screamed, "Bear!" and Mike McFatter, Mikey's father, fired into the air with his .45-caliber handgun.

Whether spooked by the boy's screaming, the gunshot or its own instincts to get out of there, the bear quickly retreated down the trail. McFatter shot a second and third round into the air. The attack, the Scouts said, lasted less than 10 seconds.

Benson was on the ground when Mike McFatter got to him. He was ashen, shaking and crying. Benson's sleeping bag was shredded, cords were ripped. Fletcher, who arrived at the attack site later, said, "His arm was like a hunk of meat."

But, Chapman said, his tears were also of joy. "He was so happy to still be alive. He was really happy."

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Anchorage, Alaska - Part of the Savage River drainage in Denali National Park has been closed after an incident Monday with a brown bear.

Rangers say two tourists from Virginia were hiking when a bear charged them.

Joanne Saunders, 52, is recovering from bruises and a broken nose after a grizzly grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the ground. Her husband was able to distract the bear and she was quickly released.

Officials expect the area to be closed for several days.

A California author and filmmaker who became famous for trekking to Alaska's remote Katmai coast to commune with brown bears has fallen victim to the teeth and claws of the wild animals he loved.

Alaska State Troopers and National Park Service officials said Timothy Treadwell, 46, and girlfriend Amie Huguenard, 37, were killed and partially eaten by a bear or bears near Kaflia Bay, about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage, earlier this week.

Scientists who study Alaska brown bears said they had been warning Treadwell for years that he needed to be more careful around the huge and powerful coastal twin of the grizzly.

Monday, June 21, 1999 � Alaska Juneau Communications - KINY Radio News

A drinking party involving minors was busted up by law enforcement authorities at the Governor's Mansion over the weekend. Juneau Police officers went to the m Fourteen year old Cody Mills of Hoonah is now reported in stable condition at an Anchorage hospital following a mauling by a brown bear Saturday afternoon. He was initially transported to Juneau's hospital in critical condition. Hoonah Police Sergeant William Mills said a search of the area immediately following the attack did not find the bear. He said the boy told him he saw two bears, but couldn't tell if one was a cub. He was walking on a trail and said the bear was on him before he knew what hit him. He tried to fend off the attack with a pocket knife and believes he cut it twice, according to the police sergeant. The sergeant said bear attacks are rare in Hoonah. It was the first once since he joined the police department seven years ago.