April 25, 2024
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A polar bear chased several residents around a tiny, isolated Alaska Native whaling village, killing a mother and her 1-year-old son in an extremely rare attack before another community member shot and killed the bear, authorities said.
The fatal mauling, the first in more than 30 years in Alaska, happened Tuesday near the school in Wales, an isolated Bering Strait coastal community located on the westernmost tip of the North American mainland — about 50 miles from Russia — that is no stranger to coexisting with polar bears.
Summer Myomick of Saint Michael and her son, Clyde Ongtowasruk, were killed in the attack, Alaska State Troopers said in a statement.
“It's very, very sad for Saint Michael right now, and Wales,” said Virginia Washington, the Saint Michael city administrator. She said Myomick split time between the two communities.
“She was a very sweet lady, she was very responsible,” Washington said.
Like many far-flung Alaska villages, the predominantly Inupiaq community of roughly 150 people organizes patrols when the bears are expected in town, from July through early November, which is before the sea ice forms and bears head out onto the frozen landscape to hunt seals.
That makes what happened this week almost unheard of because polar bears are normally far out on the ice in the dead of winter and not close to villages, said Geoff York, the senior director of conservation at Polar Bear International, a conservation group. The last fatal polar bear encounter in Alaska was in 1990.
“I would have been walking around the community of Wales probably without any (bear) deterrents because it’s historically the time of year that’s safe,” said York, who has decades of experience studying polar bears. "You don’t expect to run into bears because they’d be out on the sea ice hunting seals and doing their thing.”
Poor weather and no runway lights at the Wales gravel airstrip prevented troopers and wildlife officials from making it to Wales Tuesday after the attack. Attempts were being made again Wednesday.
When asked to describe the mood in Wales on Wednesday, Dawn Hendrickson, the school principal, called it “traumatic.” Classes were canceled, and counselors were made available.
She said there have been no announcements for memorials for the two victims yet. “We are still in the beginning phase," she said.
Wales is just over 100 miles northwest of Nome. The community is accessible by plane and boats, including barges that deliver household goods. Winter trails provide access on snowmobiles to other communities and to subsistence hunting grounds. ATVs are used for non-winter hunting and fishing trips.
Polar bears are the largest bear species, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Males can weigh more than 1,700 pounds, but typically weigh 600 to 1,200 pounds and reach up to 10 feet in length. Females weigh 400 to 700 pounds. Polar bears generally feed on seals but also prey on walruses and beluga whales.
Polar bears are at the top of the food chain, and see humans as a food source, York said. Fatal polar bear encounters usually involve young bears, usually males, who are hungry all the time, or older bears who are injured or ill and having difficulty getting enough calories.
“Both of those bear types are more likely to take risks, like we saw here in Wales,” York said.
Unlike brown or black bears, polar bears do not hibernate in the winter. Only pregnant females enter snow dens, and that’s only for reproduction.
