The Nome Nugget

Fish and Game
Employee Staves
Off Bruin Attack

JUNEAU (AP) — A young Fish and Game Department employee was attacked by a brown bear on the lower Taku River Friday, but a life preserver saved him from serious injury.

A cool companion shot the bruin.

David L. Norton, 21, of nearby Auke Bay, suffered two punctured wounds in his thigh and bruises on his back when the brownie smashed him to the ground on a remote trail above the Fish and Game Department’s Canyon Island research station.

Norton and a companion, Ronald Gross, 19, were traveling up the trail to Twin Glacier Lake, with the unarmed Norton in the lead.

Norton, wearing a life preserver, walked over a small rise in the trail and was out of Gross’ view momentarily.

"I heard a twig snap and I turned my head," Norton said.

"All I had time to do was holler, ‘bear,’ and he was on me."

The brownie bit Norton on the thigh and knocked him to the ground. Norton rolled on his stomach and stayed as flat as possible, calling for help.

Gross came running into view of the struggling bear and his victim. He fired one shot with a heavy caliber rifle. The impact of the bullet knocked the bear off Norton. The bruin got up, wheeled and charged Gross.

Gross fired three more times and killed the enraged beast.

Norton was flown to Juneau for emergency treatment of the teeth wounds in his thigh and then was released from the hospital.

Dr. Howard Tait, chief of biological research for the Fish and Game Department, said the life preserver, which the department insists its employees wear while working around the water, probably saved Norton’s life.