Hiker killed by grizzly bear in Alaska

Updated
Hiker killed by grizzly bear in Alaska
Hiker killed by grizzly bear in Alaska

PA


An American man who was hiking in Alaska's Denali National Park has been killed by a grizzly bear.

The Daily Mail reports that hikers discovered the man's backpack late on Friday afternoon, along with torn clothing and blood.

Then then alerted park rangers, who found a large male grizzly bear, sitting on the hiker's remains, about 100 yards from the attack site.

When investigators examined the contents of the man's backpack, they found that he had been taking photographs of the bear for about eight minutes before the attack, during which time it was grazing and not acting aggressively.

A state trooper shot and killed the bear on Saturday and investigators will now examine its stomach contents to confirm that it is the animal that killed the hiker, who has not yet been named. Officials were also hoping to recover the man's remains.

Denali Park Superintendent Paul Anderson said that the hiker was walking alone along the Toklat River when he came within 50 yards of the bear - which is much closer than the quarter-mile of separation dictated by the park's rules.

Before being given a permit to hike in the area, all backpackers receive mandatory bear awareness training that teaches them to stay at least a quarter-mile away from bears and to slowly back away if they find themselves closer. Investigators confirmed that the man had received the training.

This is the first-known bear attack in the park's history and it seems likely that this occurred because the hiker wasn't observing the rules.

Mr Anderson says: "Over the years, and especially since the 1970s, the park has worked very diligently to minimise the conflict between humans and wildlife in the park.

"We have some of the most stringent human-wildlife conflict regulations in the National Park system, and I think those are largely responsible for the fact that there hasn't been a fatal attack."

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