Rare Arkansas Bear AttackArkansas Game & Fish Commission Press Release
Most people never see a bear in the wild, but a Madison County man's encounter with one brings a reminder of possible dangers with wild animals. David Mincks, 59, is recovering in a Harrison hospital from severe injuries inflicted June 17 by a mother bear. The attack is only the second confirmed assault of a human by a bear in modern times in Arkansas. In the 1980's a backpacker suffered a severe shoulder bit by a bear as he slept in a small tent in northwest Arkansas.
Donny Harris, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission chief of wildlife management said, "Bears are rarely dangerous to humans and rarely aggressive. They usually avoid us before we even see them. But sow bears with cubs are something else. They are extremely protective of the cubs and can be dangerous."
"In this incident," he continued, "it's likely the bear was highly provoked by the confrontation wiht a dog. If you are in bear country be on the lookout for bears. If you see one or more cubs, don't appoach them at all. The mother will be somewhere nearby. Put some distance between you and the cubs immediately."
Mincks said he was checking a fence line on his 80 acre tract in southeastern Madison County near the Boston community when his young dog began barking at a clump of bushes. The bear came out of the brush only 20 feet from Mincks. But the bear scuffled with the dog, giving Mincks time to climb a small tree.
"The bear swatted at my dog, the dog ran off, then the bear came up the tree after me," Mincks said. "I climbed until I ran out of tree, then the bear grabbed my legs and started pulling me down the tree."
Mincks, who was barefoot, kicked the bear in the nose without effect before the bear tore flesh from his foot and fell down the tree. The dog returned, the bear chased it again, then returned for a second climb up the tree and another assault on Mincks, he said. Again the bear grabbed his legs, dragged him partway down the tree but again fell.
This time, the bear circled the tree, sat down and waited. About 20 minutes later, Mincks said, the bear went back into the bushes where he could hear a whining noise, probably on or more bear cubs, he said.
Mincks remained in the tree bleeding for more than an hour, climbed down, made a circle through the woods around where he had last seen the bear and painfully hobbled to his truck about a quarter mile from the attack site and drove to his small cabin. There he made a mixture of garlic, ground black walnut hulls and cayenne pepper that he applied to his wounds. "It burned like fire, but it stopped most of the bleeding instantly" Mincks said. He changed his bloody clothes, drove to a neighbor's home, Jim Webster, and Webster drove him to Harrison for medical help.
Mincks lives alone on the remote mountain tract that adjoins the Ozark National Forest. He said, "I had seen another on my place several times but not this big mother bear. I knew bears with cubs were dangerous, but I had no idea how aggressive she was or how fast she could climb a tree. I thought I was safe in that tree, but I wasn't."
Arkansas has about 3,000 bears, mostly in the Ozark and Ouchita mountain areas. Bears were once hunted commercially, and Arkansas was known as the Bear State. But nearly all were wiped out by the early 20th century. A restocking program in the 1950's and 1960's brought in 258 bears from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario, and the state's black bears have returned in the nation's most successful restoration of a large wild animal.
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