A polar bear that killed a young mother and her baby in western Alaska was likely an older animal in poor physical condition. However, officials have confirmed that tests have come back negative for pathogens that affect the brain and cause aggressive behaviour.
Dr Kimberlee Beckmen, a state wildlife veterinarian, collected and examined samples from the bear’s head the day after the attack, when weather conditions allowed her and an Alaska State Trooper to fly to the village. The results of her analysis indicate the bear was an adult male, probably older and in poor physical health.
Officials sent a tooth to a lab to determine the bear’s age, but those results will not be known for months. Standard tests conducted on available tissues for pathogens were negative for rabies, toxoplasmosis, distemper and bird flu.
"There is no definitive explanation as to why the bear was in poor body condition," the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the US Fish and Wildlife Service said in a joint statement. Summer Myomick and her one-year-old son, Clyde Ongtowasruk, were mauled to death on January 17 as they left a school in Wales, Alaska, to take a short walk of about 150 yards to the town’s medical clinic.
School employees attempted to stop the attack by hitting the bear with shovels, but it turned on and chased them, forcing them back inside for safety. The principal slammed the door to keep the bear out of the school.
A village resident later arrived with a gun and killed the animal. It was the first fatal polar bear attack in Alaska in three decades.
Polar bears are the largest bear species with males typically weighing 270-540kg, but some can grow up to 770kg in size and reach up to 10 feet in length. They generally feed on seals but also prey on walruses and beluga whales. Wales, a whaling village of about 160 people, is located about 640 miles north-west of Anchorage and is accessible by plane or boat.
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