‘The second bite broke the bones’: Man reveals how he survived horror bear attack

‘I realised I was in pretty bad shape because I had all this blood everywhere’

The scars left by the bear mauling (AP)

A man has revealed how he survived being attacked by a bear while trekking alone in the Alaska wilderness.

Alex Minish, 61, was carrying out surveying work in a forest on Tuesday in the Gulkana area, just off the Richardson Highway, when he turned around and came face-to-face with a large bear.

“I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary,” he told the AP from his Anchorage hospital bed, the day after the bear attacked him.

Mr Minish claimed the bear was bigger than ones he had seen previously, and he tried hiding from it in nearby spruce trees. This attempt to dissuade the bear from coming any closer was unsuccessful, as was his attempt to use his trekking pole to deter the bear – who pushed the pole aside.

The impact from this caused Mr Minish to fall to the ground.

“As he lunged up on top of me, I grabbed his lower jaw to pull him away,” he said, noting that’s how he got a puncture wound in his hand. “But he tossed me aside there, grabbed a quarter of my face.”

“He took a small bite and then he took a second bite, and the second bite is the one that broke the bones … and crushed my right cheek basically,” he said to the AP.

He sustained serious injuries to his jaw, a puncture wound in his scalp that revealed bone, and a significant amount of stitches following a four and half hour operation. His recovery includes wearing a patch over his eye.

According to Mr Minish, the bear attack only lasted for around 10 seconds.

After the bear let go him, MR Minish put his face to the snowy ground, placing his hands to his head, and in response the bear walked away. Mr Minish believes he left him alone because he no longer viewed him as threat. Following the bear’s departure, he was able to see how hurt he was,

“I realised I was in pretty bad shape because I had all this blood everywhere,” he said, and spoke about he had dialled for emergency services and used his t-shirt as compression to stop the bleeding.

Emergency responders arrived at the scene about an hour later, and Mr Minish was then flown to via helicopter to Providence Alaska Medical Centre in Anchorage.

Mr Minish has lived in Alaska for over 40 years and has come into contact with a few bears during his time there. While his work often sees him in the wilderness alone, Mr Minish said this was not something he planned on doing again.

“That’s the one lesson learned,” he said. “I should have had somebody with me.”

When told that he was lucky to have survived, he was very matter of fact about the incident.

“In all honesty, it wouldn’t have mattered either way. You know, if it killed me, it killed me. I had a good life; I’m moving on. It didn’t kill me, so now let’s move on to the other direction of trying to stay alive,” he said

Anchorage State Troopers were unable to locate the bear that attacked Mr Minish.