“They are a couple that loved each other and loved the outdoors. And they were highly, highly experienced in being out back, whether it be serious treks or canoeing, whitewater canoeing in the North country," shared Colin, reportsCanadian broadcaster CBC.
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The victims were providing daily updates of their trip to Colin, through the help of their Garmin inReach, which is a commonly used GPS amongst campers and hikers that allows texting from remote locations.
Colin explained to CBC that he had received a message that the couple hadn’t reached their planned destination for Friday, Sept. 29. They soon notified their families they were okay, set up camp at a different location, and prepared dinner for themselves.
Later in the evening, Colin recalled that he received an SOS from Garmin GPS that read “‘Bear attack bad.'" In addition to the Garmin message, the Parks Canada Agency was made aware that there was an alert indicating a bear attack was at the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch at around 8 p.m. MT on Friday.
Once Parks Canada was notified, they dispatched a response team via helicopter at 10:31 p.m. However, due to overcast weather, it couldn’t land until 2 a.m. on Saturday. After the response team arrived, they found the couple and their border collie mauled to death, said Colin, reportsCalgary Head.
He shared that one of them was not in the tent, and speculated that one left to fight the bear while the other sent the emergency alert.
“There was a struggle and the struggle didn’t stay in one place,” he added. “One can of bear spray had been fully discharged but this bear was not to be deterred.”After the response team found the deceased couple, they encountered the same grizzly believed to be responsible for the deadly attack, and were forced to shoot it, shared Colin. Parks Canada thenclosed off the areawhere the bear attack occurred.
Additionally, Parks Canada said, “Bear attacks are rare occurrences. Fatal bear attacks are even less frequent. Over the last 10 years, there have been three recorded non-fatal, contact encounters with grizzly bears in Banff National Park. These incidents were the result of surprise encounters. This incident is the first grizzly bear-caused fatality recorded in Banff National Park in decades.”
“This is a tragic incident, and Parks Canada wishes to express its sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” Banff National Park said.
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Kim Titchener, a friend of the family and the founder of Bear Safety and More, toldReuters, “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.”
Both grizzly and black bears inhabit the Banff National Park area, and Titchener told Reuters that the estimated 60 grizzly bears living there are considered to be a threatened population in local Alberta.
source: people.com
