Parks Canada got the alert at about 8 p.m. on Friday, September 29, 2023. It came from a Garmin inReach device in the Red Deer River Valley, deep in Banff National Park, and it meant a bear attack.
A team of first responders mobilized right away, but the weather ruled out a helicopter. They walked in and reached the scene around 1 a.m., according to Natalie Fay, the agency’s external relations manager.
They found two people dead, and their dog with them. A grizzly was still there, acting aggressively. The responders euthanized it on site.
RCMP officers arrived later that morning and carried the bodies to Sundre, Alberta, at 5 a.m. The victims’ names had not been released. A family member told CBC News the two hikers were common-law partners with plenty of wilderness experience.
“They lived for being in the backcountry and were two of the most cautious people I know,” the relative said. “They knew bear protocol and followed it to a tee.”
The couple had sent that relative an inReach message at 5 p.m. Friday to say they had made camp for the night. So they were not on the trail after dark, and not in the middle of pitching a tent, when the bear came.
What puzzled the experts
Kim Titchener, a human wildlife conflict specialist based in Alberta, said she found it “highly unusual” that the bear had stayed put. By her account only 14 percent of grizzly attacks end in a death, and in most of those cases the animal moves off soon after.
“So that of course is concerning and I’m not sure what was going on there,” she said. “Those details will come out as they do the investigation.”
It was the second fatal grizzly attack in North America this year.
Parks Canada has closed the Red Deer and Panther valleys to the public until further notice.
