A woman in Alaska was mauled by a bear this week near her driveway after she left her home for an early morning jog, state officials confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Ariean Fabrizio Colton, 36, a mother of three, sustained “severe injuries” during the attack and will require “extensive surgeries and a long hospital stay,” her family said on a fundraising page.
“She made it probably 50 yards from her house,” Alaska Wildlife Tpr. David Lorring told KTUU-TV. “The bear came out of another property, it looks like it attacked her … and dragged her approximately 100 yards down the road onto this guy’s property.”
Lorring told the station that one of Colton’s neighbors heard the bear in the predawn hours.
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“He heard the barking, wolfing sound of a bear. He’d been around bears before, and he thought a bear might have got a dog or was doing something in the neighborhood,” he said. “He didn’t really think much of it, and then he heard it some more. He ended up, daylight, he walked out there and located a female in the woods on his property.”
Colton’s family said they had just moved to Alaska this summer.
“Ariean is a loving wife, mother of three and a nurse known for her adventurous spirit and love of nature,” the family said. “She is extremely kind-hearted, strong and resilient and is always willing to help those in need.”
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Colton had left her house for her run and was attacked around 5:45 a.m., the Alaska Department of Public Safety said in a release.
Colton was taken by medical helicopter with serious injuries to a hospital, officials said. The family explained that the Coltons live more than two hours away from a hospital.
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Alaska authorities are searching for the bear, believed to be a brown bear, on foot and via drone but haven’t found it yet.
Patrols of the area will continue, DPS said.
