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- Shannon Stevens was at a remote yurt on Chilkat Lake, 17 miles from Haines, Alaska, AP reported.
- Stevens, her brother, and his girlfriend discovered bear tracks in the nearby area, the Independent added.
- A man was also mauled by a brown bear in the same area earlier this month, according to KHNS.
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A woman says she believed she had her butt bitten by a bear while using an outhouse in backcountry Alaska.
Shannon Stevens was at a remote yurt on Chilkat Lake, located about 17 miles from Haines in southeast Alaska, with her brother, Erik Stevens, and his girlfriend on February 13, AP reported.
The trio traveled to the backcountry by snowmobile and had been cooking sausages over an outdoor firepit. Later that evening, Stevens left to use the outhouse about 150 feet away from the yurt, according to local radio station KHNS FM, based in nearby Haines.
She told KHNS: “I got in there and sat down on the toilet seat, and something just immediately bit me in the butt. I jumped up and screamed.”
Holding a headlamp, her brother ran to investigate and found her tending to her wound, initially thinking she had been bitten by a squirrel, mink, or something small, Anchorage Daily News noted.
However, Erik Stevens told the Associated Press: "I opened the toilet seat and there's just a bear face just right there at the level of the toilet seat, just looking right back up through the hole, right at me."
They treated Stevens with a first aid kit in the yurt and decided that it wasn't serious but if it worsened, they would head over to Haines, AP added. She said: "It was bleeding, but it wasn't super bad."
The three spent the night in the yurt and, after checking to see if the bear had left the following morning, found that the firepit had been knocked over. They also discovered bear tracks in the nearby area and leading to the outhouse, according to the Independent.
Erik Stevens believes the bear was attracted by the smell of cooking and then entered the outhouse through an opening in the backdoor at the bottom of the structure, KHNS FM reported.
Erik Stevens via AP
The Associated Press added that Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Management Biologist, Carl Koch, suspects it was a black bear based upon photos of the tracks that he was shown.
Koch says the bear that interrupted Stevens' comfort break in the outhouse could have caused the would to her butt by a swipe from its claw, rather than a bite.
A neighbor living about half a mile away sent him a photo of a black bear on her property two days later, he said. The neighbor shouted at the bear but it didn't react or approach her and walked like it was in hibernation mode, AP added.
Shannon Stevens told the Associated Press: "I'm just going to be better about looking inside the toilet before sitting down, for sure."
Earlier this month, a man was attacked by a brown bear when he and two friends accidentally came across a den during a ski trip in the Haines area leaving him with a broken arm, puncture wounds, and other injuries, KHNS noted.