A 15-year-old boy is recovering from his injuries after being attacked twice by a black bear inside an Arizona cabin.
Brigham Hawkins was hospitalized with injuries to his face and arm, but is expected to make a full recovery after a bear entered the cabin he was in and “proceeded to swipe at him from behind,” the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) said in a May 24 press release.
His mother, Carol Hawkins, shared a picture of Brigham on Facebook showing his face lacerations and the gash on his right arm.
Ms. Hawkins wrote that the family was at her parents’ cabin in Alpine, Arizona, on the evening of May 23 when a bear walked in and attacked Brigham from behind while he was watching TV alone.
The bear swiped at the 15-year-old from behind, left the cabin, reentered and attacked again, mauling Brigham’s arm. The boy screamed, alerting his older brother, Parker, that something was wrong. Parker was able to scare the bear away while his other brother, Shane, attended to Brigham, the post said.
The boy’s mother told AZFamily TV in Phoenix that Brigham is unable to move quickly because he has a rare neurological disorder.
“Not many kids can say they got in a fight with a bear and came out on top,” Ms. Hawkins added in her social media post.
AZGFD officers arrived at the scene shortly after the attack and were able to “quickly locate and dispatch the bear.”
The bear was male and estimated to be about three years old, the officers said, adding that the carcass will be tested for disease by the department’s wildlife health specialists.
“Black bears are predatory animals and should always be considered unpredictable and dangerous,” the department said. “Due to the recent attack, AZGFD is reminding those visiting or living in bear country to be bear aware.”
The incident marks the sixteenth bear attack in the state since 1990. Two of the attacks have been fatal, one of which happened last year in Prescott.
Black bears can be found across most of North America, with more than 380,000 in Canada. Black bears tend to be more timid than grizzly bears and will most often defend themselves from threats by climbing trees, according to Parks Canada.
While bears generally prefer to avoid people, and attacks are rare, they can and do happen.
There were 140 reported cases between 1982 and 2018 resulting in 17 fatalities, according to Parks Canada statistics. Approximately 60 percent of the attacks involved grizzly bears and 40 percent involved black bears.
