A bear is believed to have attacked and killed a 60-year-old Missouri man who was camping in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas in a rare fatal attack, according to local officials.
The man’s children called police in Newtown County after they had not heard from their father during his trip to Sam’s Throne campground for a couple of days, Sheriff Glenn Wheeler said in a statement.
Police found the man’s body several yards outside the campsite, which had injuries like those from a “large carnivore attack”, the sheriff’s office said.
The bear suspected to have attacked the man has been caught and killed.
Officials have not yet released the name of the 60-year-old victim.
In a statement on Sunday, Sheriff Wheeler said a bear believed responsible for the attack was killed after it had been caught on camera in the campground earlier that day.
Local hunters were called in and brought hounds, which began trailing the bear, and treed it shortly afterward.
The bear’s remains will be necropsied and other testing, including attempting to obtain DNA samples to match to the victim, will also be done.
“To be 100 % certain, we will have to wait on possible DNA matches, but all indications are that this is the bear responsible for the fatal attack,” said the sheriff.
“This is a relief to me and the community, and I thank God for this outcome. This was a dangerous bear.”
The campground remains closed for the time being.
The man had sent his family pictures of a bear in his camp site before the attack, officials said, helping them identify the animal – a young male that matched the size of the photographed bear and has the same facial colorations.
Arkansas is home to over 5,000 black bears, the only species of bear in the state.
Bear attacks, especially fatal ones, are not common in North America.
From 1900 to 2009, 63 people died from a black bear attack in North America, according to a study in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
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