Asleep in a home on Shamattawa First Nation, Waylon Thomas was startled awake and then watched in horror as a bear clambered through the kitchen window — pausing for a moment before pouncing on him with its teeth bared.
Thomas, who fled from the house before being chased down and mauled, is now recovering from the attack that left him with bite marks and slashes across his back last week.
“What was I thinking? What can I think when that situation happened to me?” Thomas said.
“My stepson was yelling for me, yelling, ‘Ahhhh! Ahhhh!’ and that bear turned around on him. That’s how I managed to escape. I used a board he ripped off from the kitchen window and used it for shelter. I covered myself.”
Thomas said he’s likely alive because of what his 19-year-old stepson did.
He is believed to be the second person in Shamattawa attacked by a bear within the last week.
On Monday, community members found the remains of a 60-year-old man, previously reported missing, in a wooded area near the remote First Nation located about 360 kilometres east of Thompson.
While autopsy results have not yet confirmed the cause of death, Manitoba RCMP said evidence at the scene suggests the man was attacked by a bear.
Thomas identified the victim as his uncle, John Woods. The remains were found in an area behind a church.
“When they found the remains of his body, you couldn’t recognize his face because of that bear,” he said. “They can’t even find his other arm.”
People living in Shamattawa have reported an increase in the number of bears in and around the First Nation, and news of the attack has set the community on edge.
Many residents are afraid to let children out of their sight, area band councillor Kerry Miles said.
“There are so many bears here. We see them at night, maybe because of food cooking… and the dump is just close by here,” Miles said.
“Right now, people are concerned. Especially with the kids because they run around at night.”
Miles said he was in Winnipeg when he learned of the fatal attack while reading a community Facebook page.
First Nations members have been using the page to keep each other informed about bear sightings, with numerous posts expressing concerns about the prevalence and behaviour of the animals, including requests last week for “someone to (do) something” because “next time the bear might kill somebody.”
Manitoba conservation officers have been dispatched to Shamattawa in the wake of the attacks.
Some community members are taking matters into their own hands, Miles said.
“(The bears) are getting out of hand. We had to shoot them, we don’t want to wait for a conservation officer, because they are very dangerous,” he said.
He could not confirm the number of bears that have been shot and killed, but said it is more than one.
”There are so many bears here…. Right now, people are concerned.”–Kerry Miles, Shamattawa band councillor
Neither RCMP nor the provincial government had updates Wednesday about the investigation into the fatality, or whether bears will be culled or captured and relocated.
“(The) investigation (is) just starting, but I can confirm there has been no request from the community for assistance with any bear removals. They have that in hand,” a provincial spokesperson said.
“Depending on the location and potential for future conflict, conservation officers may respond to address concern. Whenever possible, if a bear becomes habituated to food or has reduced fear of people, they may be trapped and removed from populated areas.”
While hundreds of interactions with bears are documented annually, there have been only three fatal attacks in Manitoba since 1900 — in 1929, 1982 and 2005.
The long-term average for reported incidents in which a black bear injures a human through physical contact is less than one per year, the provincial spokesperson said.
“It’s unfortunate but when it does rise up to this level, it’s often with really tragic consequences, both for the people and, eventually, that bear,” said Michael Campbell, a professor of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba.
“The problem arises when bears start to associate people with food and become habituated to the presence of people, so it becomes much more difficult to encourage those bears to leave.”
The bear that attacked Thomas may have broken the kitchen window in search of a meal and, once trapped inside, felt threatened, he said.
But the fatal attack on Wood was likely predatory, Campbell said, suggesting the animal encountered him in an isolated area and viewed him as prey.
The same animal may have committed both attacks, although it will be impossible to confirm unless conservation officers kill the one responsible and conduct an autopsy, which could be difficult because of the number of bears in the community, he said.
Such autopsies typically involve checking stomach contents for evidence of human remains, or testing the animal for signs of illness, he said.
Campbell noted Canada is home to some of the largest black bears in the world. The Canadian Encyclopedia estimates they can range in size from 200 to 600 pounds, depending on gender.
“They are big animals, very strong, a lot stronger than a human being,” he said, noting one weighing 856 pounds was struck and killed by a motorist near a garbage dump along Lake Winnipeg in 2001.
He advised Shamattawa residents to remove any garbage, food or pet food that could attract trouble.
Thomas described the bear that attacked him as a “backstabber” and said he believes it is still wandering around the community.
“I just want one more round, one more round for that bear to come around here and I’ll be ready,” he said.
“He caught me off guard, so I’m going to be ready next time. We are all ready.”
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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