Two People Killed by Grizzly Bear at Banff National Park in Canada

Canada|Two People Killed by Grizzly Bear astatine Banff National Park successful Canada

A grizzly carnivore is believed to person attacked and killed 2 radical astatine a nationalist parkland successful southwest Canada, parks officials said connected Sunday.

Parks Canada said it learned of the onslaught via an alert sent astir 8 p.m. connected Friday from a outer instrumentality wrong Banff National Park successful Alberta, Canada, according to a statement shared connected the park’s Facebook page.

GPS coordinates showed the alert was sent from westbound of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch successful the Red Deer River Valley, astir 80 miles northwest of Calgary, Alberta. Bad upwind hindered a effect squad from reaching the tract by helicopter, truthful they alternatively traveled by crushed overnight, officials said.

The team, which specialized successful responding to wildlife attacks, arrived astatine 1 a.m. connected Saturday to find the 2 dormant people, arsenic good arsenic a grizzly carnivore that was displaying “aggressive behavior.” They euthanized the carnivore on-site “to guarantee nationalist safety,” according to the statement. The constabulary arrived astatine 5 a.m. and helped transport the victims to Sundre, a municipality astir 40 miles east.

The victims person not been named, but the CBC reported that they were a joined couple. Kim Titchener, who lives successful Edmonton, adjacent Banff National Park, and who is simply a person of a adjacent comparative of the couple, said their canine had besides been killed successful the attack. “They were successful a precise distant area,” Ms. Titchener, a wildlife struggle specialist, said successful a telephone interrogation connected Sunday.

Parks Canada did not instantly respond to requests for further accusation astir the victims oregon the attack.

An estimated 691 grizzly bears unrecorded successful Alberta, 65 of them successful Banff National Park, according to Parks Canada, which reminds visitors to be prepared for encounters. It advises traveling successful groups, making sound and carrying carnivore spray. In Alberta, the grizzly bear, a mostly solitary, omnivorous carnal that tin unrecorded arsenic agelong arsenic 30 years successful the wild, is listed arsenic “threatened.”

Bear attacks connected humans are comparatively rare, but they tin hap erstwhile a carnivore is feeding, protecting its young oregon surprised. Attacks that termination much than 1 idiosyncratic look to beryllium adjacent rarer.

In January, a polar carnivore killed a 24-year-old mother and her 1-year-old lad successful Wales, Alaska. In 2018, a grizzly bear, which the authorities aboriginal described arsenic starving, killed a pistillate and her baby successful Yukon, Canada.