A 16-year-old teenager of Alaska was participating in a race in Anchorage and lost his life after a Black Bear attacked him. It seems the animal started chasing him when he was descending, caught up with him and mauled him to death. A ranger shot the animal in the face, but it escaped, and a search is launched to locate the animal.
How it all happened
Daily Mail UK reports that according to race director Brad Precosky, the teenager was taking part in a race that takes runners up a trail and the boy had apparently gone off the trail. It is understood that he had texted his family about a black bear that was chasing him.
The boy was, at the time, on his way down from the turnaround point. This is the limit for the juniors' race and is approximately halfway up the mountain. Rescuers discovered his mauled body in a heavily wooded terrain of Alaska.
Further details are not known, but a park ranger has remarked that the young man did not do anything wrong, his only fault was that he happened to be in the wrong place. He also added that it is difficult for anyone to predict how an animal will behave or react to a given situation and which bear is a predator.
Earlier instances
Getting mauled by a black bear is not new to the area. In July 2014, it was a woman hiker who faced the predicament. She was seriously injured after being attacked by a bear sow with two cubs, and she asked the Alaska State Troopers for help.
She was on her own and was jogging a mile up the trailhead from a popular campground when she encountered the animals. She did not have any bear repellent with her.
Conflicts between human and animals are not new. There have been some instances of animals attacking and even killing their trainers who are believed to have built up rapports with them.
The behavior of animals is unpredictable, and those who look after and tend to animals in cages in the zoos live on borrowed time. Therefore, when the animal is a black bear, and it roams free in the woods, the dangers are more, and one must try not to come close.
No one knows the circumstances under which the Alaskan teenager came to be in the path of the black bear and got mauled.
It is necessary to maintain a safe distance from animals when one is in a forest and in areas where bears are known to roam freely, the bear repellant is a must. Venturing into such areas without adequate safety measures must be avoided because that can lead to serious consequences and even invite death.
