Kenai woman airlifted after brown bear sow attacks her on front deck

A Kenai woman was airlifted to an Anchorage-area hospital with serious injuries Thursday morning after a brown bear sow attacked her on her front deck while she tried to protect the dog that remained in the front yard.

The attack happened at 4:54 a.m. near Karluk Avenue and Bore Tide Drive. The woman had stepped outside to take her two dogs out when she found a sow and two cubs that had climbed over the fence into her front yard. One dog retreated into the house. The other stayed outside. She went back in, retrieved a shotgun, and fired 3 or 4 rounds to drive the bears off. The sow attacked her on the deck before a second person at the residence came out yelling, which drove the bear away. That person then moved the victim inside.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game responded to the scene, collected samples, and are investigating the incident. Troopers noted that "Several bird feeders in the yard appeared to have been disturbed and accessed by the bears prior to the attack," identifying the feeders as a likely attractant that drew the bears to the property.

A Pattern on the Peninsula

This is not the first time a Kenai woman has been mauled near her own home. In August 2025, a 36-year-old woman was seriously injured by a bear near Chinook Drive while returning from a jog and was medevaced to Anchorage. Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Kenai Police, and ADFG searched the area on foot and with a drone but did not locate that bear. State epidemiological data shows the Kenai Peninsula accounts for 69 percent of bear attack hospitalizations in Alaska's Gulf Coast region, which itself represents 43 percent of all bear attack hospitalizations statewide between 2000 and 2017.

The Bear Has Not Been Found

The bear from Thursday's attack has not been located. Alaska Wildlife Troopers and ADFG are asking anyone who sees a brown bear in the Kenai area to call 907-262-4453 or file a report through the ADFG online wildlife encounter portal at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=reportwildlifeencounter.main.

Authorities note that bird feeders and similar food sources are known attractants that can draw bears into residential yards.