Alaska Bear Victim Calls 911 After Climbing Tree [VIDEO]

An Alaska man scaled a 30-foot tree after being mauled by a bear and proceeded to call 911 as the huffing bear waited patiently below.

Ben Radakovich was hiking along the Penguin Creek Trail south of Anchorage when a large female brown bear with a cub attacked the 30 year-old man.

“The damn thing was batting at me,” Radakovich tells the dispatcher.

While perched 30-feet in the air in a tree, the badly injured man communicates with the dispatcher, letting them know that he is “bleeding bad.” At one point the call is dropped, however Radakovich is able to call back.

It took rescuers almost 2 hours to reach the Alaska bear victim as it was impossible to find a clearing to land a helicopter in the thick forest located along the Anchorage trail. Having to reach the injured man by land, authorities sent an all-terrain vehicle to his location and carted him back to a helicopter waiting 1.5 miles away.

When asked about his experience as a bear attack victim, Radakovich told ABC’s Good Morning America that “I’m just grateful that I got through it and that I’m here to enjoy another day basically.”

The calls and reports of wildlife attacks are growing exponentially and biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Dave Battle, believes that the explanation has to do with the lack of zoom on cell phone camera’s as opposed to traditional camera’s.

Battle believes that the thoughts of the average hiker go like this: “I want to get a picture, a close-up picture, so I can post it on Facebook and all my friends from all around the country can see what a neat place I live in.”

Regardless, Alaska State Trooper Tim Lewis believes that Radakovich was a very lucky man to have survived his attack.

“I can only imagine being mauled by a large brown bear would be very, very traumatic,” Lewis said. “He was in shock.”

“The good thing is that he had his cellphone with him.”

What do you think of this Alaska bear victims actions to escape his attacker?