Alaska polar bear shot dead after fatally attacking woman and child
A polar bear attack left a woman and a boy dead in a small Alaska town Tuesday.
Alaska State Troopers said they received a call at 2:30 p.m. about a polar bear chasing “multiple” residents in the roughly 150 person city in the western coastal town of Wales, Alaska.
“The bear fatally attacked an adult female and juvenile male,” police report. “It was shot and killed by a local resident as it attacked the pair.”
The victims’ identities were being withheld until family could be notified, police said. Troopers and wildlife officials planned to travel to Wales “as weather conditions allowed.”
Temperatures hovered around -10 degrees in Wales Wednesday, according to the Weather Channel.
Polar bear attacks on humans are rare in Alaska. A man north of Wales was killed in a 1990 incident the Anchorage Daily News said was caused by a bear showing signs of starvation. Wales’ population is predominantly indigenous.
Polar bears can weigh upward of 1,700 lbs. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says they are protected by the Endangered Species Act, but Alaska Natives are allowed to hunt them as “an important part of their culture.”
Hunters reportedly consume bear meat and use the animal’s white coats for blankets and clothing.
National Geographic reports the average life span for a polar bear in the wild ranges from 25-30 years. Their diet includes seals and mammal carcasses. Guinness World Records calls them the planet’s “largest terrestrial carnivore.”
