A mother of three was viciously mauled and dragged 100 yards by a brown bear just moments after stepping outside her Alaska home for an early morning jog.
Ariean Fabrizio Colton, 36, miraculously survived the terrifying encounter but has remained hospitalized since the ferocious animal left her with severe injuries requiring surgery Tuesday morning, according to local wildlife officials and her devastated family.
Around 5 a.m., the bear charged from a nearby property and ambushed Colton roughly 150 feet from her Kenai home, dragging her down the road before a neighbor found her shocked and bloodied body in his yard, Alaska Wildlife Trooper David Looring told KTUU.
“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 and was doing something in the neighborhood,” the trooper told the outlet.
“He didn’t really think much of it and then he heard it some more. [In] daylight, he walked out there and located a female in the woods on his property.”
Wildlife officials said the married nurse — who recently moved to southern Alaska — was conscious when found but was bleeding heavily from her face and scalp.
Colton was transported to a hospital in Anchorage, located nearly three hours from her home.
“She is stable, but has suffered severe injuries that will require extensive surgeries and a long hospital stay,” her loved ones said Tuesday in a GoFundMe, that has since raised more than $63,700.
“Ariean has had her initial surgery and the doctors are positive and hopeful. It is still a long road to recovery,” the family said in an update Saturday.
Officials believe the wild animal was a brown bear based on its tracks, but said it hasn’t been located.
They urged residents and visitors to remain alert as bears bulk up on salmon and berries for the winter.
“If you do get out in the woods, make sure you can hear your surroundings and what is going on,” Lorring told the outlet.
“And that can be as simple as putting in one AirPod and not two.”
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