Alaska Man Survives Harrowing Bear Attack

Bear attacks are a part of life in the outdoors-centric Last Frontier. So it went for one man who survived a scary mauling by a brown bear. Here’s more from The Associated Press:

Allen Minish was alone and surveying land for a real estate agent in a wooded, remote part of Alaska, putting some numbers into his GPS unit when he looked up and saw a large brown bear walking about 30 feet (9 meters) away.

“I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary,” Minish said by phone Wednesday from his hospital bed in Anchorage, a day after being mauled by the bear in a chance encounter.

The mauling left Minish with a crushed jaw, a puncture wound in his scalp so deep that the doctor said he could see bone, lacerations and many stitches after a 4½-hour surgery. He also is wearing a patch over his right eye and says the doctors are worried about it.

As the graphic photo below in a tweet, Minish’s brush with death was evident.