When Bears ATTACK!

When Bears ATTACK!

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/missing-persons-mysteries--5624803/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello friends. In this video, we'll be discussing the recent
shocking deaths caused by bears in the United States and Canada.
Now there have been many fatal bear attacks in North
America involving hikers, hunters, and campers caused by brown bear,
the American black bear, and the polar bear. Brown bear

(00:24):
more commonly called grizzly bear. Incidents have occurred in their
native range, spanning Alaska, northern and western Canada, and portions
of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The locations
of black bear wilderness fatal attacks reflect their wider range.
Bears held captive by animal trainers in zoos, carnivals or

(00:44):
captains pets even have been responsible for several attacks. They
have also been unusual cases in which a person entered
a bear's cage and was then mauled. Now these bear
attacks are for predatory, territorial, or protective reasons. Studying grizzlies
in and around the Grand Teton National Park in the
US have calculated that these animals can smell a carcass

(01:06):
from at least four miles away. Grizzlies outside Alaska have
been federally protected as a threatened species since nineteen seventy five,
after being almost completely exterminated by trappers and hunters early
in the last century. So don't underestimate these beautiful but
deadly animals. During January twenty twenty up to May twenty

(01:27):
twenty one, there have been seven bear fatalities in North
America's wilderness. Never run from a bear and stay together.
If you're hiking in a group, carry bear spray and
know how to use it. Here's some fatalities involving bears.
Let's begin. Doctor David Lurtzman May fourth, twenty twenty one, Wypress, Alberta, Canada.

(01:52):
Doctor Lurchman fifty nine, a senior instructor at the University
of Calgary, was killed on Tuesday, May fourth, twenty twenty
one in a bear attack while out trail running on
the Moss Trail near Wyperss Creek, close to his home
in Wypress, Alberta, northwest of Calgary. David worked in the
field of sustainability, leadership, development and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples

(02:14):
and was a long term martial arts practitioner, keigong and
meditation instructor. Cochran RCMP was notified of a missing person
just before midnight, when David's wife called to say he
had gone for a run about six pm and had
not returned. The search was then launched, involving a helicopter
and a police dog. Just after two am the next morning,

(02:34):
he was found dead just off Moss Trail. David had
led a wilderness retreat since two thousand and four, described
as a week long leadership immersive experience in the foothills
of the Rocky Mountains that has been transformational for many
Hascanny School of Business students. Kyle's You Know a Fish
and Wildlife inspector said, this can be a dangerous time

(02:55):
of year in terms of human and wildlife conflict. It's
springtime and we all know in this area bears are plentiful,
grizzly bears and black bears. The spring is especially dangerous.
They're hungry, they're out at 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

(03:17):
early to tell what we're dealing with. Is it a
male bear, is it a female bear with cubs? All
those things we refer back to our matrix and consult
with a 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

(03:38):
near the river. The wounds were consistent with an instantaneous death,
so he suffered very little. This was important for me
to know. Sarah went on to say she had searched
for David by herself for two hours of 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, she says, and not for a
scene of something that had happened. By three in the morning,

(04:01):
we knew he was no longer with us and that
it had been a bear attack. Next Laney Malavolta April thirtieth,
twenty twenty one, during Goo Colorado, Laney Malavolta, thirty nine,
died in an apparent black bear attack, just the fourth
fatal mauling in the state since they started keeping records

(04:22):
in nineteen sixty. On Friday April thirtieth, twenty twenty one,
Laney was found near Durango, about three hundred and fifty
miles southwest of Denver. She was a lifelong adventure 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 back country. Her greatest joy was

(04:43):
to be in the woods with our friends, our family,
and our dogs, her boyfriend told police. He arrived home
around eight thirty pm and found the couple's two dogs
outside and his girlfriend missing. He searched the 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,

(05:06):
Wildlife officers located a ten year old sal and her
two yearlings nearby and killed the three bears out of
an abundance of caution. The bear carcasses were transported to
the state Wildlife laboratory. Born in the cropsies and DNA
samples were sent to forensic laboratory in Wyoming. Colorado's home
to an estimated nineteen thousand black bear, with only three
other fatal bear attacks on humans since nineteen sixty. The

(05:30):
cause of death, according to the Laplatta County Corner, was
perforating injury to the neck. Jason Clay, a spokesman for
Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said there was consumption on the
body and there was a lot of bear sign in
the area, and the cropsy showed that the sal which
is the mother bear, had human remains in the digester tract,
and one of the two yearlings also had human remains.

(05:52):
A third one another the yearlings did not have human
remains in their DIGESTERI track next Charles Mock April fifteen,
twenty twenty one, Madison River, West Yellowstone, Montana. Charles Carl Mack, forty,
Montana backcountry guide at Backcountry Adventures, which provides snowmobile rentals

(06:14):
and tours in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas, died
of scalp and facial wounds after managing to call nine
one one for help after being attacked by grizzly bear
outside Yellowstone National Park. Carl lived in the Park Gateway
community of West Yellowstone and died on Saturday, April seventeenth,
two days after he was attacked while fishing alone in
a forested area along the Madison River, several miles north

(06:36):
of West Yellowstone. The male bear, which weighed at least
four hundred and twenty pounds, was probably defending a nearby
most carcass. It was later shot and killed when it
charged wildlife workers investigating the attack. Several people fired at
the animal, and it died about twenty yards from the group.
Officials said they were confident the bear that was killed
was the one that attacked Carl. The moose car Arcas

(07:00):
was found about fifty yards from the side of the attack.
According to Morgan Jacobson, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park spokesman,
Carl was found after searchers looked for him for about
fifty minutes. He was transported by toboggan and snowmobile to
an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in the
city of Idaho Falls, where he passed away. Residue from
bear spray was found on his clothing, but officials could

(07:22):
not determine to what extent he was able to use
it against the attacking bear. The Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho,
and Wyoming is home to more than seven hundred bears.
Battle attacks on humans are relatively rare, but have increased
as the grizzly population grows and more people move into
rural areas near bear habitat. Since twenty ten, grizzlies in

(07:43):
the Yellowstone Region have killed eight people, including Carl. Three
of those people who died were inside the park. The
last death before Carls was in twenty eighteen, when a
hunting guide and his client were attacked in Wyoming and
the guide was killed next Austin Pheiffer September twentieth, twenty twenty,

(08:07):
Jossana River Drainage wrangle, Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Austin Phifer, twenty two from Belleville, Ohio, was attacked by
a bear while packing moose meat from a kilsite to
a camp in an extremely remote corner of central Alaska,
only about twenty five miles west of the Canadian border.
Austin and a hunting friend killed a moose late on Saturday,

(08:29):
September nineteenth, twenty twenty, dressed it out, and returned to camp.
The plan was to haul the meat out 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 Austin and his friend
were camped in the preserved portion of the seldom visited

(08:50):
thirteen point two million acre Wrangel Saint Elias National Park
and Preserve, the largest nature reserve in the country. When
the park was created by the Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act of nineteen eighty, four, point nine million acres
were designated as preserved to allow hunting to continue in
areas where it was traditionally established. Park Service data records

(09:11):
fewer than seventy five thousand people visited the park in
twenty nineteen, and nearly all of that visitation took place
along the Nebezine Road, which goes forty two miles into
the north edge of the park, and the McCarthy Road,
which penetrates about sixty miles into the south side of
the park. It is not unusual for kill sites to
attract bears in Alaska, and experience Alaskan hunters are well

(09:34):
aware of the danger this presents. Janis Maslin, a concessions
manager specialist for Wrangel Saint Alais, who conferred with rangers
who visited the scene, said that they saw indications the
bear tried to cash part of the moose, but they
could not tell when that happened. Grizzly bears typically try
to cover their food with brush, dirt, and other material
to protect them from scavengers. Whether or not this bear

(09:56):
hat found the carcass overnight and started trying to cash it.
The bear was not on the carcass when the two
hunters arrived at it the morning. After they shot the animal,
they started the process of butchering the moose and preparing
it to haul back to camp. Austin's partner left the
site with the first load of meat, and what happened
next is unknown. As Austin's companion was returning from their

(10:18):
campsite to the site of the moose killed to get
another load of meat, he encountered the bear and was charged.
He got within fifty 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 twenty feet, appeared to flinch, and then it veered
and ran off. He continued on to the kill site

(10:38):
and found Austin's body. The bear was not seen again.
Rangers reported no indications that had been hit by the gunfire.
After finding Austin dead, and his partner returned to camp
to call the air taxi that had flown them in
into the area. The air taxi then notified the Park
Service and Alaska Wildlife troopers of the attack, and they
later it flew to the scene and said Austin was

(11:01):
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 him back to camp. Austin had his rifle
with him, but it was apparently not within reach when
the bear attacked. How close the bear got before Austin

(11:22):
spotted it will never be known. The vegetation in the
area of attack was described by the Park Service as dens.
It is possible the bear was on Austin almost as
soon as he spotted it. Bear attacks on hunters packing
or cutting meat are extremely rare, though these hunters didn't
do anything wrong in my opinion, said Christian, a veteran
Alaska hunter himself and one time ranger in the Wrangle

(11:44):
Saint Elias National Park. There's a lot of different ways
Alaska tries to kill you. After studying one hundred and
thirty five years of human versus bear encounters in Alaska
from eighteen eighty to twenty fifteen, researchers Tom Smith, A
Brigham Young University professor, and noted Canadian bear expert Stephen

(12:06):
Herrero found only sixty two deaths. They also noted that
most of the people attacked by bears over these one
hundred and thirty five years survived. Mark rangers found no
evidence that the bear remained in the area, and all
meat from the moose was salvaged as required my State
of Alaska hunting regulations. Austin was the first person to

(12:26):
have been reported killed by a bear in the park
since nineteen eighty, and several people have gone missing in
the park, never to be found. Next. Stephanie Blaze August twentieth,
twenty twenty, McKee Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. Stephanie Blaze, forty four,
was talking with her father Hubert Eskero on the phone

(12:49):
on August twentieth, twenty twenty, to discuss a broken water
pump outside the family's cabin in Saskatchewan. At the time,
Stephanie was visiting McKee Lake with her husband Curtis, and
their nine year old son and two year old daughter.
Hubert said her son that was beside her. She ordered
him to go to the house and get the antenna
for the satellite phone so she could get a better connection,

(13:11):
a better signal as Carol 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. A call
back and let it ring. Four minutes later, and I
got no response, he says, And seven minutes later Curtis
called me and said that the bear had attacked Stephanie.

(13:32):
He pepper sprayed the bear, shot the bear twice, attended
to Stephanie. He gave her CPR, but by that time
she had no pulse. The unprovoked and somewhat surprising predatory
attack involved an older male black bear. Stephanie's death was
the first resulting from a bear attack in Saskatchewan since
nineteen eighty three. Daniel Shilling July twenty nine, twenty twenty,

(13:59):
turned again in Alaska. On July twenty ninth, twenty twenty,
Daniel Shilling was clearing a trail about a mile behind
his cabin and turned again to Alaska when a brown
bear attacked him and killed him. The trail where he
was at work was only about twenty five air miles
southeast of Anchorage and only a couple miles off a
paved road that connects the community of Hope to the

(14:21):
Seward Valley. Daniel 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
Daniel's body. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials believed
the grizzly bear killed him and the black bear then
fed on his carcass, but it remains possible that grizzly
preyed on him as well. Evidence found that the scene

(14:44):
of that attack indicated Daniel tried to defend himself with
bear spray. An empty canister was found about fifteen feet
away from his body, and state wildlife biologists to arrive
on the scene to investigate his death said they could
still smell the pepper spray in the air. Cindy Ward,
Alaska Department of Fishing Game Regional Supervisor, said a bear
spray canister was found at the attack site during the investigation.

(15:07):
It was empty, when it was located. A friend of
Daniels had said that he was carrying a handgun as well,
but that report has not been officially confirmed. If the
gun was in his backpack, it would have been of
no use. If it was holstered, it would appear he
never got a chance to use it before the bear
killed him. Daniel, like Austin, was in dense vegetation when attacked,

(15:30):
and in such situations there's not much time between one
a bear is seen and when it is on you.
Daniel was in a far less remote area than five,
but the area has many bear with a healthy population
of both grizzly and black bears. Finally, Peter Franzac July twentieth,

(15:50):
twenty twenty, red Lake, Ontario, Canada. Sixty seven year old
Peter Franzac of Red Lake had left his home on
the morning of July twentieth, twenty twenty pick blueberries on
Tusick Road off Highway one to five in Ontario, Canada.
The area was between the township of ear Falls and
the municipality of Red Lake. Opp began a search for

(16:11):
the man when he didn't return home is scheduled, and
found his remains. The opp also located a black bear
in the vicinity of the deceased and it was killed
by the officers. Post mortem examination of Peter, conducted in
Toronto on July twenty fourth, determined that the cause of
death was indeed a bear attack. Well there you have it,

(16:35):
just one of the many dangers that can await you
in the great outdoors. If you're in an area that's
heavily popular with be safe, stay alert, carry bear spray.
As we said before, don't run, and if you're part
of a group, stay together. Sometimes making noise or assailing
the bear with rocks will cause it to run away.

(16:56):
For whatever you do, stay safe in the National parks,
enjoy your time in the great outdoors, but live to
tell the tale. Thank you for listening. Look forward to
reading your comments. But we do ask that you show
respect to the victims and the opinions of others. Until

(17:18):
we meet again, be good to yourselves and each other.
I'm Steve Stockton and I'll talk to you next time.