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The shocking deaths caused by bears in the United States and Canada
Revised and updated November 2023
There have been many fatal bear attacks in North America involving hikers, hunters, and campers caused by brown bears (Ursus arctos), American black bears (Ursus americanus), and the polar bear (Ursus maritimus).
Attacks are typically caused for predatory, territorial, or protective reasons. In particular, bears with cubs or emerging from hibernation are particularly prone to attack hikers. Scientists studying grizzlies in and around Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. have calculated the animals can smell a carcass from at least four miles away.
Don’t underestimate these beautiful but sometimes dangerous animals. Humans can encourage bear attacks by petting cubs or leaving food unattended in and around campsites. If bears become accustomed to approaching humans or reliant on food left in the wilderness, they are more likely to approach rather than avoid human activity. The more contact there is with bears, the greater the chance of a fatal encounter.
Bear sightings increase during autumn as they become more active in searching for food ahead of hibernating in the cold winter months.
Most bear attacks tend to be caused by surprise encounters, leading to a defensive attack. This occurs when a bear sees people as a threat to itself, its food source or its cubs. Fortunately, predatory attacks are extremely rare, but not unheard of.
Although only around 14% of grizzly bear attacks worldwide resulted in fatalities, between January 2020 and November 2023, seven bear fatalities occurred in North America’s wilderness.
Never run from a bear; stay together if you are hiking in a group. Also, carry bear spray and know how to use it. Avoid the area if you see cubs, make noise and be extra vigilant before and after hibernation periods.
Bears and hibernation
Some bears spend several weeks or months sleeping, and this inactivity helps them conserve energy - Slow breathing, a slow heart rate, low body temperatures, and a low metabolic rate. Typically, animals hibernate to cope with months that are low in food supply. Stored body fat from earlier months gives the body all the energy it needs to last the hibernation period.
There is some debate about whether bears truly go into true hibernation. First, hibernation is defined as the animal’s body temperature dropping to match the outside temperature. This is not the case for bears. While a bear’s breathing and heart will slow, their body temperatures remain quite high. In addition, animals that hibernate, like squirrels, wake up gradually. However, bears can wake up instantly from their deep sleep. Therefore, some experts describe a bear’s dormant state as “winter sleep”, “carnivoran lethargy”, or “dormancy”.
Black bears can hibernate for up to seven and a half months without drinking water, eating food or defecating, whereas Grizzly bears typically hibernate between five to seven months. Alaskan Brown Bears can hibernate from five to eight months. As Alaskan Brown Bears are found in a colder climate, they typically spend a long time in hibernation compared to other bear species.
Bears naturally come out of hibernation when the weather starts becoming warmer. As temperatures in some locations have gotten warmer in decent decades, this can bring bears out of hibernation earlier than desirable as reliable food sources may not yet be available. If food is unavailable, it may make bears more desperate to avoid starvation and potentially force them to attack humans.
Bears can also come out of hibernation if disturbed from their sleep. They can immediately wake up to defend themselves or their cubs if they are disturbed by loud noises, such as gunshots or approaching danger.
Where have bear attacks on humans occurred?
Brown bear (more commonly called grizzly bears) attacks on humans have occurred in areas spanning Alaska, Northern and Western Canada, and portions of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The locations of black bear wilderness attacks that have caused fatalities occur more widely than grizzly-related incidents, reflecting their wider distribution in North America.
Bears held captive by animal trainers, in zoos, carnivals, or kept as pets have been responsible for several attacks, including cases where an owner has entered a cage and was then mauled.
Grizzlies have been federally protected as a threatened species outside Alaska since 1975 after being widely exterminated by trappers and hunters early last century.
Bear Attacks Causing Deaths in North America 2020-2023
Doug Inglis and Jenny Gusse with their dog (Tris), September 29, 2023, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Jenny Gusse and Doug Inglis
On Friday, September 29, 2023, at around 8 pm, a Garmin inReach GPS device was triggered, indicating a bear attack in the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch in Banff National Park. The area is 125 miles (200 km) northwest of Calgary.
Colin Inglis immediately knew something was wrong when a message came in from a GPS / Satellite operator saying that his uncle Doug Inglis, who was in the Canadian National Park with his partner, Jenny Gusse, and their dog, Tris.
The Canadian National Park has more than four million visitors yearly and has grizzly and black bears. There are estimated to be sixty or so grizzly bears, and the species is considered endangered. Parks Canada said there had been three recorded non-fatal encounters with grizzly bears in Banff National Park in the past ten years and no fatalities in decades.
The couple, both 62, from Lethbridge, a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, died in the bear attack, and their seven-year-old border collie was also killed. Inglis said the couple met as students at the University of Alberta and worked together in a lab for Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge.
Doug and Jenny had been on a week-long backpacking trip in the area and had been checking in daily with Colin and Gusse’s mother.
Colin had received a text message from their inReach device at 4:52 pm on September 29th saying they had been delayed but that everything was OK. Then, a representative with the satellite device company, Garmin, reached out at 8.15 pm, saying that the SOS had been activated and that somebody had entered into the device a message that said, “Bear attack bad.”
Parks Canada and their Wildlife Human Attack Response Team were immediately notified of the message from Garmin. However, weather conditions at the time did not allow helicopter use, leading the response team to travel to the location by ground through the night of the 29th into the 30th. They arrived at 1 am and found the couple and their dog, Tress, killed by an aggressive grizzly bear. The bear was subsequently killed. The response team was specially trained in firearms and wildlife attack site investigation and forensics,
Kim Titchener, the founder of Bear Safety and More and a family friend, said, “It's really just the reason why we're seeing more attacks, which is more people heading outdoors and unfortunately not being educated on this.” She provides training on bear safety and bear assessments.
A necropsy showed the bear was old, underweight and had bad teeth, but parks officials said it will likely never be known what led to the attack, and they wouldn’t speculate. Colin Inglis said he believes the couple were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were always well prepared on their backcountry trips, he said. “But bears are unpredictable. This is a rogue bear. This is something unusual that has happened.”
He added that the couple had a routine. They would set up camp as soon as they arrived, start their food preparation and send inReach messages to family members. “So, we knew they had established camp. They weren’t out wandering around.” Once it got dark, he said, they would typically get into their tent and read. “We believe that’s what they were doing”. Adding the dog would have been in the tent with the couple before the attack.
The parks team found the tent had been crushed with their e-readers inside, but the couple was found outside the tent. “They were in stocking feet, so that’s not normal. It was wet outside. It had been snowing.”
Parks officials have said the couple’s food had been hung appropriately, and two cans of bear spray were found at the scene. They did not say whether the spray, which can be effective with some bears, had been used. Inglis said he was told that a bear spray canister had been emptied and that there were signs the couple tried to scare off the bear. “There was a struggle, and the struggle didn’t stay in one place,” he said. “But, in the end, both bodies were back together. They were reconnected. That’s who they were. They were together in life, always. Part of the draw for being there was, of course, access to the backcountry — to Waterton Park and Banff Park, being in the places they loved to be”
Steven Jackson, June 16, 2023, Groom Creek, Arizona
Steve Jackson
Steve Jackson, 66, was sitting at a table on his property near Prescott, Arizona, drinking a cup of coffee, when a wild black bear attacked him and mauled him to death. The location was in a densely wooded area, and Jackson was at the site as he was building a cabin. Black bears are the only species found in Arizona.
The 300-pound bear, between 6 and 10 years old, grabbed Steve unexpectedly and dragged him down an embankment for 75 feet. Neighbors heard his screams for help and tried to intervene but could not save him. Sheriff David Rhodes of the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said, “They tried to get the bear to stop attacking him, there was honking horns, different things they were doing. There was no success in stopping the attack.”
A bystander with a rifle then shot the bear. Rhodes said. “Unfortunately, by that time, Mr. Jackson has succumbed to his horrible injuries,”.
The authorities described the death as“predatory in nature” and an incredibly rare unprovoked attack. It was only the second fatal bear attack in Arizona since 1990, with the last one occurring in 2011.
The local sheriff’s office couldn’t immediately identify anything at Jackson’s campsite, such as food, that may have provoked the bear in any way. The Game and Fish Department tested the animal’s carcass for disease or anything else that might have caused the highly unusual mauling.
Todd Geiler, an Arizona Game and Fish Commission member, said, “This was an especially aggressive, unprovoked attack that reminds us that wildlife can be unpredictable.”
When the tests came back a week after the death, the bear was found to be in “good condition with no apparent signs of disease. An examination of the stomach by AZGFD wildlife veterinarian Dr. Anne Justice-Allen found human remains consistent with the injuries found in the victim, ”Additionally, native vegetation and seeds were found inside the bear. The amount of body fat on the bear indicated it was in good nutritional condition.”. It also tested negative for rabies. The results deepened the mystery of what caused the aggressive, unprovoked attack.
Jackson was remembered as “the happiest guy” who had a passion for the outdoors. He was building the home with plans to “grow old together” with his partner of 15 years Annie Cooke. Annie said on FaceBook, “This morning awoken to the aroma of coffee brewing in the air…yet there was no coffee… Almost Every morning, for 15 years, Steven would get up before me to start the coffee. He would often come to me if I was still sleeping with a cup in hand and blow across the top of the cup to awaken me with a warm playful smile, “Good Morning Annie, coffee is brewed”….this pain is so consuming at times.”
“He was just the happiest guy. I mean it was like he had no problems in the world. He just only cared about making people happy and living a great life for himself. He was looking forward to enjoying the rest of his days in his favorite place in the whole world.”
Unnamed woman, July 31, 2021, Swan Hills, Alberta, Canada
A 26-year-old woman from Peers in Alberta was attacked and killed by a female black bear on July 31, 2021, in the Swan Hills area of Northern Alberta—an area located about 136 miles (220 km) northwest of Edmonton. The victim’s family has asked that she not be identified.
Tree planters hired by private companies to re-forest after logging operations are often sent to work in remote, rugged terrain, working long hours in the forest; they often encounter wild animals, including cougars, wolves and bears.
Spokesperson Cpl. Troy Savinkoff of Swan Hills RCMP received a report of a bear mauling just after 3 pm that day. Witnesses at the scene said a black bear was the animal behind the attack. Savinkoff said, "Some effort was put in to try to scare the bear off. And ultimately, the witness secured her and airlifted her on their helicopter out of the area to get them to emergency services."
The unnamed woman worked for a helicopter company providing transportation for tree planters in the area, and she received medical attention at the Swan Hills Airport but was declared dead at the scene.
RCMP worked with Alberta Fish and Wildlife to determine the details of the attack and set up a trail camera and traps in the area. Samples were taken from the victim's clothing to build a DNA profile of the attacking bear.
According to an AFW press release, “Officers located three black bears near the site of the incident and submitted DNA to the forensic lab for analysis. On August 2, the analysis confirmed a profile match to one of the bears, an adult female that did not appear to have cubs.”
Officials euthanized the bear in line with Alberta’s Black Bear Response Guide, which prioritizes balancing the needs of wildlife with those of the public. “This decision is never made lightly, and when made, it is to prevent more attacks by that particular bear.”
There is only one other case of a tree planter dying from a black bear mauling. In 1985, 24-year-old Gordon Ray was killed in British Columbia, Canada.
Dr. David Lertzman, May 4, 2021, Waiparous, Alberta, Canada
Dr. David Lertzman
Dr. David Lertzman, 59, a senior instructor at the University of Calgary, was killed on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, in a bear attack while out trail-running on the Moss Trail near Waiparous Creek, close to his home in Waiparous, Alberta, northwest of Calgary.
David worked in the field of "sustainability, leadership development and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples" and was a long-term martial arts practitioner, Qigong, and meditation instructor.
Cochrane RCMP was notified of a missing person just before midnight when David’s wife called to say he had gone for a run about 6 pm. and not returned. A search was then launched involving a helicopter and a police dog. Just after 2 am the next morning, he was found dead just off Moss Trail.
Lertzman had led a wilderness retreat since 2004, described as "a week-long leadership immersive experience in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains that has been transformational for many Haskayne School of Business students."
Kyle Juneau, a fish and wildlife inspector, said this could be a dangerous time of year in terms of human-wildlife conflict, "It's springtime, and we all know in this area bears are plentiful, grizzly bears, black bears, the spring is especially dangerous, they're hungry, they're out of the den. They're wandering to where they had food last fall. Capturing the bear, relocating, euthanizing, all the options will be weighed out, but it's too early to tell what we're dealing with. Is it a male bear? Is it a female bear with cubs? All of those things we refer back to our matrix and consult with our biologists and make the appropriate decisions then."
David’s wife, Sarah, said the bear attacked him from behind, sending him over a steep embankment, “He was attacked by a bear from behind and pushed off a very high embankment and was found near the river. The wounds were consistent with an instantaneous death, so he suffered very little. This was important for me to know.”
Sarah said she had searched for David by herself for two hours the night he disappeared and walked right past the point of attack and saw no sign of it, “I was looking for a man in trouble and not for a scene of something that had happened. By three in the morning, we knew he was no longer with us and that it had been a bear attack.”
Laney Malavolta, April 30, 2021, Durango, Colorado
Laney Malavolta, 39, died in an apparent black bear attack, just the fourth fatal mauling in the state of Colorado since records began in 1960.
On Friday, April 30, 2021, Laney was found by her boyfriend near Durango, about 350 miles southwest of Denver. She was a lifelong adventurer and lover of the outdoors. According to her boyfriend, “Laney spent her life in the outdoors and was an experienced and knowledgeable operator in the backcountry. Her greatest joy was being in the woods with our friends, family, and dogs.”
The man told police he arrived home around 8.30 pm and found the couple’s two dogs outside and his girlfriend missing. He searched a trail on private land where she frequently walked the dogs and notified authorities after discovering her body.
The authorities found bear fur, scat and “signs of consumption on the body”.
Using tracking dogs, wildlife officers located a 10-year-old sow and two yearlings nearby and killed the three bears “out of an abundance of caution”. The bear carcasses were transported to the state wildlife laboratory for necropsies, and DNA samples were sent to a forensic laboratory in Wyoming.
Colorado has an estimated 19,000 black bears, and there have been only three other fatal attacks on humans since 1960.
The cause of death, according to the La Plata County coroner, was a perforating injury to the neck. Jason Clay, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman, said, “There was consumption on the body, and there were a lot of bear signs in the area. The necropsy showed that the sow, the mother bear, had human remains in the digestive tract, and one of the two yearlings also had human remains. A third one, another of the yearlings, did not have human remains in their digestive tract.”
Charles Mock, April 15, 2021, Madison River, West Yellowstone, Montana
Charles “Carl” Mock
Charles “Carl” Mock, 40, a Montana backcountry guide at Backcountry Adventure, which provides snowmobile rentals and tours in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas, died of scalp and facial wounds after managing to call 911 for help after being attacked by a grizzly bear attack outside Yellowstone national park.
Carl lived in the Park Gateway community of West Yellowstone and died on Saturday, April 17, two days after he was attacked while fishing alone in a forested area along the Madison River several miles north of West Yellowstone.
The male bear, which weighed at least 420 pounds (190kg), was probably defending a nearby moose carcass and was later shot and killed when it charged wildlife workers investigating the attack. Several people fired at the animal, and it died about 20 yards (18 meters) from the group. Officials said they were confident the bear that was killed was the one that attacked Mock.
The moose carcass was found about 50 yards (45 meters) from the attack site, according to Morgan Jacobsen, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesperson.
Carl was found after searchers looked for him for about 50 minutes. He was transported by sled and snowmobile to an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in the city of Idaho Falls, where he died.
Residue from bear spray was found on his clothing, but officials could not determine how much he could have used against the bear.
The Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming is home to more than 700 bears. Fatal attacks on humans are relatively rare but have increased as the grizzly population grew and more people moved into rural areas near the bear habitat. Since 2010, grizzlies in the Yellowstone region have killed eight people, including Carol, including three people who have died inside the park. The last death before Mock’s was in 2018 when a hunting guide and his client were attacked in Wyoming, and the guide was killed.
In August 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report on an investigation into the attack by officials from Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
“The tragic event of Mr Mock being attacked by an adult male grizzly bear and subsequently dying from the attack was the direct result of Mr Mock’s own purposeful or random placed proximity to a moose carcass that an adult male bear had cached and was actively feeding on.”
“A short time before the adult male bear attacked Mr Mock, it may have defended or claimed the moose carcass from another grizzly bear. If so, this would have contributed to the bear’s extended aggressive defense of the moose carcass.”
Officials couldn’t say whether Mock purposely went to the site of the attack. He owned fishing gear and a telephoto lens, and the closest point to the Madison River was about 400 yards northeast of the attack site. An examination of Mock’s fishing gear showed he hadn’t been actively fishing when the attack occurred.
It is estimated Mock was in the area for less than 90 minutes, but it couldn’t be determined exactly how long he’d been at the site before being attacked. It also isn’t clear whether Mock came upon the animal feeding or if he was already at the site and the grizzly happened upon the moose carcass.
An empty canister of bear spray was found at the scene, and the bear carcass’ hair contained bear spray residue, so officials did determine Mock was definitely aware of the potential for grizzly encounters in the area. It was unclear at what point during the attack (if not before) Mock used the bear spray.
While the overall effects of the bear spray on the grizzly aren’t known, the bear did stop attacking Mock at some point. Mock moved away and called 911, but the bear remained agitated, close to the attack site and the moose carcass.
The grizzly was killed on April 16 as it charged the investigation team. “The unfortunate subsequent death of Mr Charles (Carl) Mock caused by a grizzly bear attack…reinforces the inherent possibility of people being involved in a serious grizzly bear encounter and the need for individuals to know and try to follow known safety recommendations.”
Austin Pfeiffer, September 20, 2020, Chisana River drainage, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Austin Pfeiffer, 22, from Bellville, Ohio, was attacked by a bear while packing moose meat from a kill site to a camp in an extremely remote corner of Central Alaska only about 25 miles west of the Canadian border.
Austin and a hunting friend killed a moose late on Saturday, September 19, 2020, dressed it out and returned to camp. The plan was to haul the meat on their backs to a favorable location for a small plane from a local air taxi to land and pick them up.
Park Service spokesman Peter Christian said the moose kill was about a half mile from where Pfeiffer and his friend were camped in the preserve portion of the seldom-visited, 13.2-million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the largest nature reserve in the country. When the park was created by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, 4.9 million acres were designated as preserve to allow hunting to continue in areas where it was traditionally established.
Park Service data records that fewer than 75,000 people visited the park in 2019, and nearly all of that visitation took place along the Nabesna Road, which goes 42 miles into the north edge of the park, and the McCarthy Road, which penetrates about 60 miles into the south side of the park.
It is not unusual for kill sites to attract bears in Alaska, and experienced Alaska hunters are well aware of the danger this presents.
Janice Maslen, a concessions management specialist for Wrangell-St. Elias, who conferred with rangers who visited the scene, said that they saw indications the bear tried to cache part of the moose, but they could not tell when that happened.
Grizzly bears usually try to cover their food with brush, dirt and other material to protect it from scavengers. Whether or not this bear had found the carcass overnight and started trying to cache it, the bear was not on the carcass when the two hunters arrived at it the morning after they shot the animal.
They started butchering the animal and preparing to haul the meat back to camp. Pfeiffer’s partner left the site with the first load of meat; what happened next is unknown.
Pfeiffer’s companion was returning from their campsite to the site of the moose kill to get another load of meat when he encountered the bear and was charged. He “got within 50 yards or so of the kill site and was charged by a bear. He shot in the direction of the bear several times. The bear got within 20 feet, appeared to flinch, and then veered and ran off.”
He continued on to the kill site and found Austin’s body. The bear was not seen again. Rangers reported no indications the gunfire had hit it. After finding Pfeiffer dead, his partner returned to camp to call the air taxi that had flown the men into the area. The air taxi notified the Park Service and Alaska Wildlife Troopers of the attack, and they later flew to the scene.
Maslen said, “Pfeiffer was found at the harvest site. He did not have a pack on at the time his body was discovered by his hunting partner or when the NPS recovered his body. The pair were in the process of loading game bags and transporting them back to camp.”
Austin had his rifle with him but was not within reach when the bear attacked. How close the bear got before Pfeiffer spotted it will never be known. The Park Service described the vegetation in the area of attack as “dense.” It is possible the bear was on Pfeiffer almost as soon as he spotted it.
Bear attacks on hunters packing or cutting meat are extremely rare. “These hunters didn’t do anything wrong, in my opinion,” said Christian, a veteran Alaska hunter himself and a one-time ranger in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. “There’s a lot of different ways Alaska tries to kill you.”
After studying 135 years of human-bear encounters in Alaska from 1880 to 2015, researchers Tom Smith, a Brigham Young University professor and noted Canadian bear expert Stephen Herrero, found only 62 deaths. They also noted that most people attacked by bears over those 135 years survived.
Park rangers found no evidence that the bear remained in the area, and all meat from the moose was salvaged as required by state of Alaska hunting regulations.
Pfeiffer was the first person to have been reported killed by a bear in the park since 1980, and several people have gone missing in the park, never to be found.
Stephanie Blais, August 20, 2020, McKie Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Stephanie Blais, 44, was talking with her father, Hubert Esquirol, on the phone on August 20, 2020, to discuss a broken water pump outside the family's Saskatchewan cabin. At the time, Stephanie was visiting McKie Lake with her husband, Curtis, and their 9-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.
Hubert said, "Her son that was beside her, she ordered him to go to the house and get the antennae for the satellite phone so it could get a better connection, a better signal.”
Esquirol then heard what sounded like a gurgling noise coming from his daughter's end of the line. He called her name but received no answer, "I called back and let it ring four minutes later, and I got no response. And seven minutes later Curtis called me [and said] that the bear had attacked Stephanie, he pepper-sprayed the bear, shot the bear twice, he attended to Stephanie and gave her CPR, but by that time she had no pulse.”
The unprovoked and surprise predatory attack involved an older male black bear. Her death was the first resulting from a bear attack in Saskatchewan since 1983.
Daniel Schilling, July 29, 2020, Turnagain, Alaska
On July 29, 2020, Daniel Schilling was clearing a trail about a mile behind his cabin in Turnagain, Alaska, when a brown bear attacked him and killed him. The trail where he was at work was only about 25 air miles southeast of Anchorage and only a couple miles off a paved road connecting Hope's community to the Seward Highway.
Schilling was alone at the time, and the case is a confusing one in that DNA evidence later linked both a grizzly bear and a black bear to Schilling’s body. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials believe the grizzly bear killed him, and the black bear then fed on his carcass, but it remains possible the grizzly preyed on him as well.
Evidence found at the scene of that attack indicated Schilling tried to defend himself with bear spray. An empty canister was found about 15 feet from his body, and state wildlife biologists who arrived on the scene to investigate his death said they could smell the pepper still in the air. Cyndi Wardlow, Alaska Department of Fish and Game regional supervisor, said, “A bear spray canister was found at the attack site during the investigation. It was empty when it was located.”
A friend of Schilling has said he was carrying a handgun as well, but that report has not been officially confirmed. If the gun were in his backpack, it would have been useless. If it were holstered, it would appear he never got to use it before the bear killed him.
Schilling, like Pfieffer, was in dense vegetation when attacked, and in such situations, there is not much time between when a bear is seen and when it is on you.
Daniel was in a far less remote area than Pfieffer but had many bears, with a healthy population of grizzly and black bears.
Peter Franczak, July 20, 2020, Red Lake, Ontario, Canada
67-year-old Peter Marion Franczak of Red Lake had left his home on the morning of July 20, 2020, to pick blueberries on Tuzyk Road off Highway 105 in Ontario, Canada. The area was between the Township of Ear Falls and the Municipality of Red Lake.
OPP began a search for the man when he didn't return home as scheduled and found the man's remains. Police also located a black bear in the vicinity of the deceased, and officers killed it.
A postmortem examination of Franczak conducted in Toronto on July 24 determined the cause of death as a bear attack.
Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Senior Media Relations Officer Jolanta Kowalski confirmed that the bear responsible for Franzak’s death was a 160-pound male in good physical condition. A rabies test was negative.
She said, “Based on the description of the incident and the fact that the bear was a healthy-looking male, this appears to have been a predatory attack.”
Peter was born in Stuttgart, Germany on January 20th, 1953. Peter immigrated to Canada in January 1956, arriving in Red Lake on January 24th. He worked at Codville and McLeod’s Transportation driving bus until 1986. He then started a 32-year-long career at Campbell Mine, where he became a trainer in his later years, sharing his experience with a new generation of miners. He was an avid outdoorsman with a love for fishing, hunting and spending time in the bush. He also had a passion for riding his motorcycle.
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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/01/colorado-woman-killed-rare-black-bear-attack-durango
https://nypost.com/2021/05/05/colorado-woman-killed-in-bear-attack-idd-as-laney-malavolta/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/20/montana-guide-mauled-to-death-in-grizzly-bear-attack-outside-yellowstone
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/university-of-calgary-senior-instructor-killed-in-suspected-bear-attack-near-waiparous-1.5415000
https://www.rmotoday.com/canmore/former-canmore-resident-killed-in-fatal-bear-attack-remembered-as-great-man-3756449
The man, identified by police as Peter Franczak, left home on the morning of July 20 to pick blueberries on Tuzyk Road off Highway 105, between the Township of Ear Falls and the Municipality of Red Lake.
https://craigmedred.news/2020/09/24/second-bear-victim/
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