"Woman plays dead, survives Alaska bear attack" Associated Press May 30, 2014
ANCHORAGE — Jessica Gamboa grew up hearing you should play dead during a bear attack, and she put that knowledge to the ultimate test when she was pummeled by a brown bear that left her bloodied on a remote road at a military base in Alaska.
That action probably saved her life.
‘‘I actually can’t even believe this actually really happened,’’ the 25-year-old woman said in a videotaped interview the Army released Thursday.
In the interview taped Tuesday at her hospital bed, Gamboa said she surrendered herself to the bear during the May 18 attack at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage after she encountered the animal and her two cubs.
The Army also released an interview with Sergeant Collin Gillikin, a combat medic who rescued her after the mauling, which left Gamboa with lacerations to her neck, arms, and legs; a torn ear; and neck fractures.
Mark Sledge, senior conservation law enforcement officer at the base, said he knows of only one other close encounter with a bear. In 2010, a black bear gnawed a child’s leg without breaking the skin when a group of children saw it and played dead. The animal ran off when a girl yelled at it.
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UPDATE: Alaska wildfire keeps growing after evacuations
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Vermont seeks help finding young bear
Wow, those things can move fast.
