A 60-year-old father was reportedly attacked and killed by a black bear at a campsite in Arkansas, where signs of a struggle were discovered.
Authorities uncovered drag marks leading from the campsite into the woods, indicating a harrowing end for the Missouri man on October 5th. The victim’s body was located near Sam’s Throne Campground in the Ozarks, with Sheriff Glenn Wheeler of Newton County confirming the cause of death as an “animal mauling.” The wounds sustained by the victim were consistent with those typically seen in a large carnivore attack.
A black bear was captured on camera in the campground area on the same day as the attack, just yards away from where the victim was assaulted. The bear’s appearance matched images taken from the scene, leading Sheriff Wheeler to believe it was highly likely the same bear responsible for the tragic incident.
Following the incident, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission concurred with the findings of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office regarding the bear in question. The animal was subsequently moved to Little Rock for a necropsy and further testing to determine if DNA samples link it to the victim. Sheriff Wheeler described the bear as a young male that was likely separated from its mother earlier in the year.
The victim, who remains unidentified, was first reported missing when his family alerted authorities after he failed to check in for several days. The family mentioned that they last heard from him after he sent a photo of a bear from the camp on Tuesday morning.
In a separate incident in Franklin County, a man passed away from injuries sustained in a black bear encounter. Vernon Patton, 72, was attacked by a bear while working on a tractor along a roadside last month.
The American black bear, the smallest bear species in the U.S. and commonly found in North America, is the sole bear species in Arkansas according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. With an estimated population exceeding 5,000 bears in the state, bear hunting season began in Newton County on September 17th.
Despite being the least aggressive bear species, as noted by the World Animal Foundation, the black bear may attack humans when startled or in self-defense. The foundation reported that on average, the 750,000 black bears in North America cause less than one human fatality per year.