An Alaskan woman had the scare of a lifetime when she used a little house in the backwoods and was attacked by a bear, underneath.
“I went out and sat on the toilet and immediately something bit my ass right when I sat down,” Shannon Stevens told the Associated Press. “I jumped and screamed when it happened.”
Stevens, his brother Erik and his girlfriend had taken snowmobiles to the desert on February 13 to stay in their yurt, located about 20 miles northwest of Haines, in southeastern Alaska.
Her brother heard the screams and went out to the outside bathroom, about 150 feet (45.72 meters) away from the yurt. There, he found Shannon taking care of his wound. At first, they thought she had been bitten by a squirrel or a mink, or something small.
Erik brought his flashlight to see what it was.
“I opened the toilet seat and there was just a bear face right there on the level of the toilet seat, looking back through the hole, right at me,” he said.
“I just closed the lid as fast as I could. I said, ‘There’s a bear down there, we have to get out of here now,’ he said. “And we ran back to the yurt as fast as we could.”
Once inside the house, they treated Shannon with a first aid kit. They determined it was not so serious, but they would go to Haines if it got worse.
“It was bleeding, but it wasn’t too bad,” said Shannon.
The next morning, they found bear tracks across the property, but the bear had left the area. “You could see them on the other side of the snow, reaching the side of the house,” she said.
They think the bear entered the outside bathroom through an opening at the bottom of the back door.
“I guess it probably isn’t that bad for a little winter burrow,” said Shannon.
Alaskan Fisheries and Wildlife Department biologist Carl Koch suspects it was a black bear based on the photos of the footprints he saw and the fact that a neighbor who lives about 800 meters away sent him the photo of a black bear on his property two days later.
The owner of the house shouted at the bear, but he did not react. He also didn’t approach her, but he worried about his business, as if he were in a mode of walking hibernation.
Even though it is winter, Koch said that they receive calls throughout the year about the absence of bears.
And 2020 was a record year for general bear problems in the Haines area.
The reasons for this, he said, may include the fact that it was a bad salmon crop year combined with a mediocre red fruit crop. “It is also possible that a bear will not be able to put on enough weight when it goes to the den, so they can leave the house more often or sooner,” he said.
Koch suspects that Shannon’s injury was caused by the bear striking her with a paw instead of being bitten. Either way, the place can be the first.
“As for getting slapped on the butt when you’re sitting in the winter, she may be the only person on Earth with whom this has happened, as far as I know,” said Koch.
No matter the season, Erik says he will carry bear spray with him at all times when he goes to the hinterland, and Shannon plans to change his behavior as well.
“I’ll be better looking inside the bathroom before I sit down, for sure,” she said.