A screen grab from the Facebook group “Mama Bears” showing a young bear strolls through the exchange at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on July 5. The bear ate a peach, then left the facility. (Facebook)
With the timely assistance of an automatic sliding door, a black bear’s foraging foray Sunday ended up in the commissary of one of the largest U.S. military bases in Alaska.
“Just a normal day for Alaska” is written on top of the 34-second video clip of the incident posted by the Facebook account, “Alaska Mamas.”
A spokeswoman at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage said Tuesday that the bear had entered the shopping area at about 9 a.m. Sunday.
“We can confirm that nobody was injured, to include the bear,” said Air Force Maj. Carly Costello, director of public affairs for the 673rd Air Base Wing.
The video shows the meandering ursine youngster checking out the produce on sale at the Air Force-Army installation’s store, a shopping hub for the more than 30,000 military personnel, civilians and dependents at the base. The base is the headquarters of both the 11th Air Force and the Army’s 11th Airborne Division.
In the video, the bear paws a peach onto the floor and takes a few bites. It then waddles away and is last seen looking in the window from the base exchange parking lot. No humans appear in the video.
Conservation Law Enforcement Officers — civilians trained to work with the base’s staff and residents in dealing with the wildlife often seen in the area — were soon on hand.
“Officers were notified and arrived on scene to shoo the bear towards Ship Creek and deeper into the wood line,” Costello said.
Colette Brandt, JBER’s Wildlife Program Manager, said the bear interaction was “entirely incidental” — the bear walking past triggered the automatic door to open, allowing it to wander inside. The bear showed no aggression and displayed “standard, non-confrontational foraging behaviors.”
A brown bear rummages through an unsecured plastic-lidded dumpster at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, in May 2026. (Join Base Elmendorf-Richardson)
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s official acronym is “JBER” — pronounced “J-bear.”
Conservation officials say the 65,000-acre base that backs into the Alaskan wilderness is home to 39 species of mammals, 162 species of birds, 12 species of fish and 1 amphibian.
The base said in December 2024 that it recorded roughly 600 bear-sighting reports per year. Military personnel and others on the base are briefed upon arrival about the presence of animals in the area.
Most bear interactions are uneventful. The most common damage is to property, particularly when items that can attract animals are left outside or within animals’ reach in barracks, homes, buildings or vehicles on base.
“JBER has seen a decline in calls about bears since all dumpsters on the installation were replaced with bear-resistant dumpsters in May,” Costello said Tuesday.
Two 11th Airborne Division soldiers from JBER were seriously injured by a brown bear in April while on “land navigation training” in a remote part of the 65.000 acre base, Army officials said at the time of the incident. The soldiers used bear spray to stop the bear’s advance. They were evacuated by other soldiers and taken to an Anchorage hospital.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said at the time that the “defense attack” by the bear occurred when the soldiers inadvertently were in the path between the bear and its den.
A sergeant at the base was mauled to death by a bear near a garbage dump in May 2022. Another soldier was injured in the incident.
