Tad Fujioka, Sitka, Alaska man mauled to death by a brown bear while deer hunting. Missing man’s body was found next to a devoured deer carcass.
A deer hunter who failed to return home was found mauled to death by a brown bear, with the man’s body found next to a deer carcass.
Tad Fujioka‘s body was discovered by Alaska State Troopers at 11:30am on Wednesday after the 50-year-old vanished during a deer hunting trip the day before, the law enforcement agency said.
Authorities were called just after 6pm on Tuesday as a desperate search was launched for the missing man according to Alaska’s Dept of Public Safety.
Did deer hunter take all necessary precautions?
Investigation revealed he was the likely victim of a ‘fatal bear mauling,’ state troopers said.
Fujioka had killed a deer at the location before he was attacked by at least one brown bear, Tim DeSpain, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Public Safety said.
Investigators confirmed they knew it was a brown bear that killed the Sitka resident as that is the only species of bear in the remote wooded area, DeSpain added.
‘The area is remote and there are a lot of bears in that area,’ he said.
Multiple brown bear ate a deer Fujioka had killed, then left the area, DeSpain said.
State troopers and Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials searched for the predator that might have been responsible for the mauling of Fujioka, but were unsuccessful, DeSpain said.
The area is remote, difficult to access and has a lot of bears, DeSpain said.
It remained unclear how Fujioka, understood to be a seasonal hunter came to be mauled by the wild animals and whether he had followed best practises.
Fujioka was a commercial fisherman and a father according to one fishing site.
‘May the sea breeze forever surround you and the sun shine upon your face. You will be missed by all,’ Laurie Ann Jones-Serka wrote on Facebook.
Sitka is south of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and is a city with a population of around 8400 in the Alaska panhandle, southwest of Juneau.
Alaska is known for its brown and black bears, which include grizzlies, as well as polar bears, USA Today reported.
There are around 100,000 black bears and around 30,000 brown bears in Alaska, the state Department of Fish and Game states on its website.
