“One can of bear spray was completely empty, but this bear wouldn’t be deterred,” the deceased man’s uncle reported.
A family member of the couple who killed a grizzly bear while visiting Canada’s Banff National Park on Friday recently revealed that they had sent a disturbing text before the attack.
The two campers, Doug Inglis, 62, and Jenny Gusse, 62, were identified by Doug’s uncle, Colin Inglis.
“They are a couple who loved each other and loved the outdoors. And they were very, very experienced in being in the backcountry, whether it was serious travel or canoeing, whitewater canoeing in the north country,” Colin said, Canada’s CBC television reported.
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The victims provided daily updates on their trip to Colin with the help of their Garmin inReach, a widely used GPS among campers and hikers that allows messages to be sent from remote locations.
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Colin explained to the CBC that he received a message that the couple had not arrived at their planned destination for Friday, September 29. They soon informed their families that they were fine, set up camp elsewhere, and prepared dinner for themselves.
Later that evening, Colin recalled receiving an SOS from the Garmin GPS that read “‘Bad bear attack'”. In addition to Garmin’s message, the Parks Canada Agency was notified that there was an alert indicating a bear attack was in the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch around 8:00 PM MT on Friday.
After Parks Canada was notified, they dispatched a helicopter response team at 10:31 p.m. However, due to cloudy weather, he was unable to land until 2am on Saturday. When emergency responders arrived, they found the couple and their border collie crushed to death, Colin said, according to the Calgary Head.
He said one of them was not in the tent, and it is speculated that one went to fight the bear while the other sent an emergency alert.
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“There was a fight and the fight did not stop in one place,” he added. “One can of bear spray was completely empty, but this bear was not to be deterred.” After emergency crews found the deceased couple, they encountered the same grizzly bear believed to be responsible for the fatal attack, and were forced to shoot it, Colin shared. Parks Canada then closed the area where the bear attack took place.
Additionally, Parks Canada says, “Bear attacks are a rare occurrence. Fatal bear attacks are even rarer. In the last 10 years, there have been three non-fatal contact encounters with grizzlies in Banff National Park. These incidents were the result of sudden encounters. This incident is the first fatality caused by a grizzly bear in Banff National Park in decades.”
Following the attack, the deaths of the couple from Lethbridge, Alberta, were announced Sunday on the Banff National Park Facebook page.
“This is a tragic incident and Parks Canada wishes to express its sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” Banff National Park said in a statement.
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Kim Titchener, a family friend and founder of Bear Safety and More, told Reuters, “That’s really just the reason we’re seeing more attacks, which is more people are going out there and unfortunately they’re not educated about it.”
Both grizzly bears and black bears inhabit the Banff National Park area, and Titchener told Reuters that the estimated 60 grizzly bears living there are considered a threatened population in local Alberta.
News about bear attacks this year was not hard to come by. Just in August, an 82-year-old woman was attacked by a black bear in her home in Colorado, and a 7-year-old boy was attacked in his yard in New York.
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