The polar bear chased several residents around Wales, killing two people in an extremely rare attack, authorities said. The last fatal polar bear encounter in Alaska was in 1990.
“I would have been walking around the community of Wales probably without any deterrents because it’s historically the time of year that’s safe,” said York, who has decades of experience studying polar bears. “You don’t expect to run into bears because they’d be out on the sea ice hunting seals and doing their thing.”
Alaska scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in 2019 found changes in sea ice habitat had coincided with evidence that polar bears’ use of land was increasing and that the chances of a polar bear encounter had increased. The group notes a few polar bear patrol programs in Alaska, including for Wales, which it said was seeking funding to maintain operations, and in the Native village of Diomede, where it says a patrol operates mainly in the winter to protect kids walking to and from school.
Nezda, the superintendent, said residents in the region share the land with wildlife, but that also comes with danger. The bear is from a population of polar bears in the Chukchi Sea that is faring well amid climate change, Derocher said. That means the attack could be the result of a bear lured by attractants such as food or garbage more than by climate change factors, he said.
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