{"id":210164,"date":"2012-08-26T17:25:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T00:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=210164"},"modified":"2012-08-26T17:25:23","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T00:25:23","slug":"grizzly-bear-fatally-attacks-backpacker-in-denali-national-park-and-preserve","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/news\/2012\/08\/26\/grizzly-bear-fatally-attacks-backpacker-in-denali-national-park-and-preserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzly Bear Fatally Attacks Backpacker in Denali National Park and Preserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Denali National Park and Preserve officials confirm that\u00a0a solo backpacker was killed by a grizzly bear along the Toklat River the\u00a0afternoon of Friday, August 24.\u00a0\u00a0 A wallet with probable identification of\u00a0the victim was found near the kill site, and NPS rangers are working to\u00a0make positive confirmation and notify next of kin.<\/p> <p>Friday afternoon, three dayhikers first discovered an abandoned backpack\u00a0along the Toklat River approximately 3 miles south of the Toklat River Rest\u00a0Area.\u00a0 Upon further investigation, they saw evidence of a violent struggle,\u00a0including torn clothing and blood.\u00a0 They immediately hiked back to the rest\u00a0area and notified the NPS staff of the findings at approximately 5:30 pm.<\/p> <p>Park rangers launched a helicopter and a fixed wing aircraft from park\u00a0headquarters at 8:00 pm.\u00a0 Searchers on the aircraft located the scene at\u00a08:35 pm.\u00a0 At least one grizzly bear was still at the site, although there\u00a0may have been multiple bears.\u00a0 The bear(s) moved away when the helicopter\u00a0approached and landed.\u00a0 Two rangers on board the helicopter got out and\u00a0confirmed the location of the victim\u2019s remains.<\/p> <p>Initial evidence indicates that the attack occurred proximate to the\u00a0river\u2019s open braided gravel bar, although the bear subsequently dragged the\u00a0remains to a more secluded, brushy cache site.\u00a0 After conducting an initial\u00a0surveillance of the site, the rangers determined that the recovery of the\u00a0remains would need to wait until daylight due to the presence of bears and\u00a0the waning light.<\/p> <p>Park officials believe that there are no other registered backpackers in\u00a0the immediate vicinity.\u00a0 An emergency closure has been put in place,\u00a0prohibiting all hiking and camping in that backcountry unit until further\u00a0notice.<\/p> <p>Park rangers will return to the incident scene on Saturday morning, August\u00a025, to secure the site, recover the remains, and attempt to locate the\u00a0predatory bear.\u00a0 Wildlife biologists estimate that roughly 12 grizzly bears\u00a0have been residing in the vicinity of the kill site this summer.<\/p> <p>This incident is the first known bear mauling fatality recorded in Denali\u00a0National Park and Preserve. All backpackers in the park receive mandatory\u00a0\u2018Bear Aware\u2019 training prior to receiving a backcountry permit, including a\u00a030-minute safety video, a safety briefing from the backcountry ranger\u00a0staff, and all backpackers are required to carry a Bear Resistant Food\u00a0Container (BRFC).\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/dena\/planyourvisit\/bearsafety.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/dena\/planyourvisit\/bearsafety.htm<\/a><\/p> <p>More details on this fatal incident will be released as the investigation\u00a0continues.<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Denali National Park and Preserve officials confirm that\u00a0a solo backpacker was killed by a grizzly bear along the Toklat River the\u00a0afternoon of Friday, August 24.\u00a0\u00a0 A wallet with probable identification of\u00a0the victim was found near the kill site, and NPS rangers are working to\u00a0make positive confirmation and notify next of kin. Friday afternoon, three dayhikers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":210165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[23184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/210164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/210164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorhub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}