Fla. Woman Recovers From Weekend Bear Attack

April 14--As a Seminole County mother recovered from a bear attack this weekend, wildlife officials said Sunday night that they shot an aggressive bear and put down others in the area of the attack.

In the wake of the mauling, Frank Frana described finding his wife bloodied and crying after being attacked by a 200-pound bear Saturday night.

Terri Frana, 44, was attacked in the garage of her home near Lake Mary and suffered bite marks to the head, arm and leg, and claw marks to her back, according to her husband.

"She's traumatized and she's sore; it's like she got beat up," said Frana, 54.

She had to have 30 staples and 10 stitches in her head, and came home from the hospital at about 1:30 a.m. Considering what she'd been through, her husband said, "she's incredibly OK. It's amazing."

Sunday evening, Fish and Wildlife officials said they shot a bear that demonstrated "dangerous behavior" toward officers and staff at the scene of the attack. The bear approached biologists at close range and showed no fear of humans, officials said.

Other bears in the area also appeared to be "highly habituated" to people, the agency said. Three bears that showed no fear of people were captured and put down. It was not clear late Sunday whether any of the captured bears were involved in the attack.

On Sunday, Terri Frana was not up to talking with reporters but was alert and able to watch TV coverage of the incident as she recovered at home.

Outside the family home in the gatedCarisbrooke subdivision near Lake Mary, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers set three traps around the Franas' yard as they attempted to find the ursine culprit.

Though initial reports had suggested that Frana may have been attacked by as many as five bears, officials said that was not the case.

"As far as we know, there was only one aggressive bear," Florida Fish and Wildlife Officer Lenny Salberg said during a press conference Sunday morning.

The attack comes at a time of year when bears are leaving their winter dens. On the day of the attack on Frana, the FWC even had sent out an alert warning that mother bears and cubs are on the move and likely to roam farther from home than usual.

Historically, bears in Florida are not known to attack humans. A December incident in which a woman was mauled by a bear near Wekiva Springs State Park is the most serious to date. A Lake County man claimed to have been attacked in his mobile-home park in February, but he later admitted he'd lied about the incident.

FWC faced public outcry when it euthanized two bears caught in traps after the Wekiva attack. Post-mortem DNA tests revealed neither was involved in the mauling.

Frank Frana said his wife was sitting on the back porch at about 7:45 p.m. when she noticed a pair of bears running in the area. She was concerned because two of her children, 10 and 11, had just ridden to a neighbor's home on their bikes, so she went to check on them.

When she got to the garage, "she noticed five bears going through garbage that they had pulled out of the garage," Frana said. "One of the bears raised and knocked her down. The bear mauled her for a short period of time,and somehow she broke free."

She made her way back inside the home and collapsed in the foyer. Frana and the couple's eldest son, Drew, 15, found her there, and Drew immediately called 911.

"She was lying on the floor crying, and there was blood everywhere," Frana recalled. He estimated police, fire and wildlife officers were on the scene within 10 minutes.

"It was short, it was quick, but it was a close call," he said.

Sharing the area with bears is nothing new for the Franas, who've lived in the neighborhood for 10 years. The bears live in an adjoining preserve and like to look for food in residents' trash.

"We've always been concerned about it and we're cautious; usually we don't leave the garage door open," Frana said. "But on a Saturday, with the kids in and out riding bikes, we left it open.

"When that happens, three times out of 10 a bear will come inside and pull the trash out. But as soon as they hear us, they usually run away. This time they didn't."

Bob Myers of Sanford was out for a bike ride on a trail that runs past the Carisbrooke subdivision Sunday morning. He's been riding there regularly for the past several years, without ever seeing a bear. But he expects encounters like Saturday's to become more common.

"We're encroaching on the bears," he said. "There's more construction, so it's going to happen."

Seminole County is ground zero for bear incidents in Central Florida. According to the Orlando Sentinel's database on bear incidents, there were 44 nuisance bear reports last year within a mile of the Franas' home.

See the database and learn more online by clicking here.

FWC asks residents to call the agency's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922 to report any threatening bear activity.

dbreen@tribune.com or 407-420-5189

Sara Clarke of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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