Polar bear attack injures hiker in Labrador park

[sardog1]

"A hiker who was injured by a polar bear in a remote national park in northern Labrador has been flown to a Quebec trauma centre for treatment, Parks Canada says.

Matt Dyer, a prominent legal aid lawyer from Portland, Maine, was with seven other hikers with the Sierra Club on Wednesday in Torngat Mountains National Park when he was attacked by the bear.

Peter Deering, with Parks Canada, said they got the call from the RCMP that someone in the park had been attacked.

According to Deering, Dyer was alone in his tent, and the group woke up to the attack at around 1:30 a.m. AT."

Polar bear attack injures hiker in Labrador park

 

[Hillwalker]

More information here: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewi...al-attorney-recovering-polar-bear-att/1398872

 

[sardog1]

Thanks for that link. This is the first instance of an attack behind an electrified fence that I know of. They've been used for several years in Alaska and Canada. I'll be quite interested to know what is determined about the setup and how that might have affected its efficacy.

 

[Stan]

"Deering said Parks Canada recommends an armed polar bear guard for anyone entering the park, but it isn't mandatory to hire one."

The Torngat Mountains are hundreds of roadless miles from what we call civilization. I've seen this barren corner of the planet from sea and hope to return one day to set foot on ancient undisturbed soil, breath the clean chill of Arctic air and sip from icy snow and glacial melt of the streams. There are no trails for us hikers, just destinations, but you can be sure that wherever I went, I'd heed the above recommendation, just as I heed the recommendation for bear spray out west. Polar bears make grizzlies look like wimps ... and they are hungry and pissed off.

Besides, I think cavorting with an Inuit Guide, whose ancestors have survived this beautifuuly brutal piece of earth for millenia, would be half the fun.

 

[sardog1]

Besides, I think cavorting with an Inuit Guide, whose ancestors have survived this beautifuuly brutal piece of earth for millenia, would be half the fun.

+1, for the sentiment and for using "cavorting".

It's worth noting that research teams in Svalbard, which also has plenty of ice bears, are regularly staffed with bear guards.

 

[sun=electric]

I have been a couple times to the Northern Lab coast. The problem is that only local Inuit are allowed to be the armed polar bear guards. No one else is allowed to be armed. There needs to be a change in this policy. A simple "need to carry a firearm" permit. Canada is very strict with non-native people carrying a firearm in this zone.

 

[sierra]

On a trip to the San Francisco Zoo, I ran into one of the attendents. I asked him this " What is the last cage or pen you would want to fall into? with no hesitation he answered " The polar bear pen". I asked why? He said that the internal quest for food is so ingrained into their minds, you wouldn't have a second to get out, other animals like Lions, would study you first giving you a few minutes at least.