A grizzly bear encounter ended up deadly over the weekend at a park in Alaska, the National Park Service said on Tuesday.
The service said in a news release a hunter was visiting the park together with a friend for a 10-day moose hunting trip when they encountered the animal on Sept. 20 near the Chisana River in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
Details around the attack, as well as the identification of the hunter, were not yet released pending an investigation, the park said.
The service said the fatal encounter is the first of its kind that occurred in the park since it was established in 1980 and officials encouraged people to be cautious when visiting.
“Visitors are encouraged to be Bear Aware when traveling in the backcountry and take precautions such as carrying bear spray and using Bear Resistant Food Containers (BRFC),” park officials said in the statement following the incident.
The NPS also provided a link with additional “Bear Safety for Hunters” information and encourages hunters visiting the park to read it.
Details about the grizzly bear were not provided in the statement.
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the largest national park in the United States with an area measuring 13.2-million-acres. That is the same size as Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Switzerland combined, or simply six times the size of Yellowstone, according to the NPS’s website.
The Wrangell’s is a volcanic area always covered in snow, it still has at least one remaining active volcano that last erupted in the 1900s.
