When looking for content for the “Predator Watch” series, there’s never a shortage of stories about bear attacks. I don’t write about most of them because they’re usually very similar in nature — for example, a woman out hiking with her dogs gets injured by a bear, or a horrific mauling occurs in Canada or Japan.
This is a headline you don’t see often, though: two soldiers injured by a bear during training at an Army base in Alaska.
The two soldiers from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage were engaged in a land navigation training exercise on April 16 when they were attacked by what is believed to be a brown bear. After an investigation, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game labeled it a defensive attack, concluding that a bear emerging from a den after hibernation was the most likely culprit, although officials were unable to locate the animal during a search of the area.
Latest reports indicate that the soldiers, who were not publicly identified due to privacy reasons, are receiving treatment for their injuries. However, it could have been much worse, according to Cyndi Wardlow, a regional supervisor with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who said, “In this case, having bear spray with them in the field may have saved their lives.”
Related: Predator Watch: Southern California Rattlesnake Warning Following 2 Deaths
I said at the top that this is a story you don’t see often, but two soldiers were also attacked in Alaska in 2022, although that didn’t have as positive an outcome. While one soldier sustained minor injuries in the attack in a training area west of the Anchorage landfill, Staff Sgt. Seth Michael Plant, 30, died after being mauled by what was believed to be a female bear defending her cubs. The BBC reported on that incident:
The New York Times, citing an Alaska Wildlife Trooper, reported that the men were attacked after stumbling upon the bear den while scouting a possible wilderness training site.
"From the soldier's perspective, there was a flash of brown mass," Capt Derek DeGraaf told the newspaper. "They were attacked and didn't even see it coming."
The military has not described what protective gear the troops may have been carrying, including whether they had a commonly available type of chemical pepper spray used to stop a charging bear.
I can’t imagine that many of our finest men and women in the U.S. military think about wild animals when they contemplate the threats they will face upon enlisting. But it does happen — and it’s not limited to bears. Snakes seem to be the bigger threat.
Pfc. Bailey Jerome Swaggart, 25, of the 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Division, died from a venomous snake bite in 2015, only a month after he was deployed to Manda Bay Naval Base in Kenya. As we've seen in previous "Predator Watch" columns, obtaining antivenom as quickly as possible is essential after a snake bite. In a report on Swaggart's death, Stars and Stripes noted:
What additionally remains unclear is why Swaggart was not found by fellow troops for some time — how long has not been disclosed — after being bitten. The time lapse is important because antivenoms are available that allow victims to survive and recover if administered in time.
In 2007, for example, a Royal Irish Regiment soldier on sentry duty in Kenya was bitten in an arm by a black mamba. The soldier received immediate treatment from a medic, then was taken by helicopter more than 300 miles to hospital in Nairobi for the antidote and survived, according to the BBC.
Likewise, according to a 2013 study published in U.S. Army Research, 17 cases of venomous snakebite victims — most of them Afghans but two U.S. servicemembers — brought to three U.S. military medical units in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011 survived after treatment. The median time between being bitten and receiving treatment was 2.8 hours, the study said.
Service members have also died from snake bites on U.S. soil. Pfc. Norman M. Murburg, 20, a Special Forces trainee, sustained multiple bites from a water moccasin while he was conducting a land navigation exercise near Camp Mackall in North Carolina in 2008. From a WRAL News report:
An autopsy ruled out heat or dehydration as a cause of death and determined a cottonmouth moccasin – one of six venomous snakes in North Carolina – bit Murburg.
Its bite destroys tissue and is fatal without medical intervention. Symptoms include extreme swelling, burred vision and vomiting.
Abel said Special Forces training includes wildlife safety, including identifying snakes. But, he said, "you're not always going to be aware of 100 percent of everything around you."
Nearly 500 soldiers spent 21 hours searching for Murburg, Abel said. None of his emergency devices, including a high-frequency radio tracker, had been activated.
Prayers for a full recovery for the two soldiers injured this month in Alaska.
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I have an update to the last "Predator Watch" column, Mystery Animal Attack Leaves Mother of 4 Fighting for Her Life. According to FOX 23 News, DNA samples have confirmed that a domestic dog, not a wild animal, attacked Oklahoma mother Alicia Maxey. According to her sister-in-law, "Maxey suffered a setback earlier this week that required emergency surgery, though she has since returned to a regular hospital room."
