Alaska Hunter Found Dead From Apparent Bear Mauling, Troopers Say

A hunter in Alaska was found dead this week and state troopers believe that he was fatally mauled by a bear.
On Thursday, authorities in Alaska announced that they had found the body of 50-year-old Tad Fujioka on an island near southeastern Alaska.
Fujioka, a resident of Sitka, was reported overdue on Tuesday evening after he failed to return from what was supposed to be a solo, daylong hunting excursion on Alaska’s rugged Baranof Island, Alaska State Troopers confirmed.
On Wednesday, a search team comprising state wildlife troopers, the U.S. Coast Guard and Sitka search and rescue personnel discovered Fujioka’s body. According to authorities, he appeared to have been mauled by bears, which had also scavenged a deer he had hunted.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter spotted three brown bears near the site where the deer had been killed and alerted ground search teams, Tim DeSpain, a spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers, said in an email to The Associated Press (AP).
Alaska State Troopers, joined by personnel from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, searched for the bears until nightfall but were unable to locate them, DeSpain said.
However, Fujioka’s body was recovered, and his family has been notified.
In 2019, the State of Alaska Epidemiology published a report on the number of different bear attacks in the state from 2001 to 2017.
“During 2000–2017, 68 people were hospitalized for injuries sustained during 66 unique bear attacks, averaging 3.8 bear attack hospitalizations per year,” the report said. “During 2000–2017, there were 10 bear-related fatalities resulting from 8 unique bear attacks. Half of the attacks occurred in June and all occurred during June through October.”
“Seven (70 percent) of the fatalities involved brown bears, and three (30 percent) involved black bears. One fatality involved a brown bear sow with cubs,” the report added.
Earlier this month, a black bear and its three cubs attacked a man inside his home in Lake City, Colorado, after crashing through a sliding-glass door. Wildlife authorities said the man, aged 74, attempted to scare the adult female bear away using a kitchen chair but was knocked into a wall and injured by the bear.
The bear clawed at the man’s head, neck, arms, shoulder, abdomen and calf, according to Colorado Parks & Wildlife. Despite the altercation, the man and his wife managed to escape to a bedroom, where they called for help.
A sheriff’s deputy arrived at the scene and chased the bears out of the house.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.