A Fairbanks hunter, on a bear hunt on the southern end of Kodiak Island was mauled by a Brown Bear on Saturday.

Rodd A. Moretz, on a hunting trip with his thirteen-year-old son, had just taken his bear at Sulua Bay on the southern end of the island on Saturday evening about 6:30 pm.

As he was approaching the bear he had just shot, now 100 yards distant, another,second bear emerged from a den at a full charge as he walked past the bear’s wintering quarters.

Both father and son scrambled to evade the charging bear. The son fell into the alders as the bear closed on and impacted Moretz. The impact caused both man and bear to tumble down a slope for about 50 feet. In the tumble, the bear and man were separated. After that brief encounter, the bear retreated back to the den.

Moretz suffered scalp wounds from where the bear bit him in the attack, but was otherwise uninjured.

Moretz’s son was able to bandage his father’s wounds.

Later, the father and son skinned and salvaged their kill before flying out with Andrew Air back to Kodiak the next day.

Before going to Kodiak’s Providence Hospital, Moretz went to ADF&G to have his bear sealed.

No further action will be taken in the attack. The attack will be considered a unlucky chance encounter. There is little possiblity of another attack by this bear in the largely unpopulated area. It is likely that the female bear was instinctually protecting young cubs in the den.