Scott MacInnes set an Alaskan record this week, although not one contenders would seek to break. State officials say the 51-year-old biologist is the first person known to have survived two bear attacks.
MacInnes was mauled during his early morning jog on Monday when he met up with a brown bear and one or two cubs near his home in the Kenai Peninsula town of Soldotna.
He had been mauled 38 years earlier on a well-used hiking trail in the Chugach National Forest, according to a government biologist.
“That’s the only time in the history of the state that I have a record that anybody’s been attacked twice,” said Tom Smith, a bear biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who keeps records of Alaska bear attacks dating to the late 1800s.
The presence of a dog and a food source, a freshly killed moose found nearby, made the bear more aggressive, said Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
