Maybe it is just increased people in the woods these days, or some sort of NFL prediction, but the bear species appears very dominant, and downright deadly this summer. 7 teens, average age 16ish, were recently on a month long survival hiking experience. They were arm-entwined crossing a creek, and seemingly doing everything right. The first teen/point man hit the shoreline and was mauled without mercy. The bear hit the first victim, tore into a second just coming onto dry land, and then went back to working on the first guy again. General horror just then ensued. The first two were so severely mauled, injuries considered life-threatening, that they were treated/immobilized at the scene until stable medical transport could be guaranteed.The children gathered their wounded, retreated to make a safe camp site, stabilized the wounds and set off an emergency locator beacon that brought first responders as soon as humanly possible to the remote location. Air Force national Guard PJs were used to evacuate the most grievously wounded 3 victims, of the 7. That is some scary shit right there. Many bear attacks are because you surprised the bear {we believe these guys were singing while crossing the river to intentionally make noise as not to startle a bear}, or recklessly left food right in the tent/campsite, rather than hang it a distance away in a tree. This mother bear, and possibly at least one cub, just seemed pissed off-or very primally protective of her young. That is not the actual bear involved pictured above-we believe the predator bear, and mini bear are still at large.
http://www.adn.com/2011/07/24/1983379/grizzly-sow-attacks-group-of-seven.html
http://www.mountainnature.com/wildlife/bears/bearencounters.htm {How to maximize your survival during bear, or psycho girlfriend, encounters. The important thing is stay downwind, and don't run from either one if confronted-although we were pretty sure we had one ex-girlfriend that couldn't chase us downhill}.
TUESDAY UPDATE: New details emerging from rescuers/Alaska state police. These guys are cool. They did everything correct, including stabilizing the most severe bleeding with garbage bags, remaining together in a survival situation as a cohesive group for 9 hours before rescue arrives and being in a productive peer group experience instead of dealing drugs or in a street gang for the summer. We are watching an interview with one of the more severely wounded survivors on CNN, and he can't believe he is so significant as to make the national news. Upon positive confirmation from the correspondent, the youth made us even prouder when he exclaimed into the mic, 'Hell yeah!!'