Olsen did not think that the bears had been drawn to the area because of improper bear management: “The area was clean. There was no food or any garbage lying around that could have attracted the bears.”
Olsen said that deadly maulings by bears are extremely rare. “There have only been two fatal incidents involving black bears in B.C. since 2000,” he said.
The last incident took place in 2007, when 31-year-old Robin Kochorek’s body was found with a black bear near it at the Panorama Mountain Resort southwest of Banff. She was reported missing after going mountain biking. The bear was shot on site by the RCMP.
Previously in September 2002, 31-year-old Christopher Bayduza was attacked and killed by a bear when he went for a walk behind a trailer at a remote oil-rigging site near Fort Nelson............................................ .......
A recent study by University of Calgary professor Stephen Herrero suggests that predatory bear attacks are on the rise in North America. The study says that lone male black bears hunting people as potential sources of food are a greater cause of deadly maulings than mother bears protecting their young, as widely thought. People can be trained to recognize the behaviour of a bear that is considering them as prey and deter an attack, says the study.