Coast Guard rescues Alaska hunter mauled by bears (VIDEO)

The Coast Guard airlifted an Alaska man to safety Tuesday after a pack of bears mauled him while deer hunting.

Michael Snowden suffered serious leg wounds during the attack on Sally Island, the Alaska Dispatch reported.

The 68-year-old from Sitka was hunting for deer with 38-year-old Jeff Ostrin when the bears struck. The two ― who were dragging a deer carcass through the woods ― were on a lunch break when they heard rustling behind them.

A female bear charged at Snowden and bit his leg. Ostrin shot the bear, killing it, Nathan Svoboda, a biologist with Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game, told the newspaper.

The bear was traveling with at least two cubs, he said.

Ostrin killed one of the cubs ― between 2 and 3 years old ― when it lunged out of the brush, Svoboda said.

A Coast Guard crew airlifted Snowden off the island and took him to Kodiak Municipal Airport, where medical teams picked him up, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

United States Coast Guard/CNN

United States Coast Guard/CNN

United States Coast Guard/CNN

United States Coast Guard/CNN

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The Coast Guard reported five bears attacked the hunter, two more than the report from the Fish and Game department.

A call to Alaska State Troopers, who are investigating the incident and tasked with accounting for the bears in the area, was not immediately returned.

Svoboda called the Tuesday attack “a very rare occasion,” as did the Coast Guard.

 “The fact that there were five bears was an abnormality and this serves as a reminder that anything can happen and we need to be aware of our surroundings,” Lt. j.g. Joseph Schlosser, of the Coast Guard’s 17th District, said in a statement.

In May, a brown bear mauled a woman jogging near an Anchorage military base. She survived the attack.

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