Conservation officers are headed to Shamattawa First Nation after human remains were found in what police believe may have been a bear attack — the second to occur in the area within the last week.
Mounties in the community, located about 360 kilometres east of Thompson, received reports of a missing 60-year-old man Monday at about 11 a.m.
A short time later, community members located human remains in a wooded area near a path, Manitoba RCMP said in a news release Tuesday.
The remains are believed to belong to the missing man and the death is being attributed to possible “animal predation,” the release said.
“There is evidence to suggest a bear was involved. However, we need to have an autopsy completed in order to determine cause of death, for example, to determine if the person may have been injured or dead before the attack,” RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said.
“We need to explore all possibilities.”
Another man was confronted by a bear inside a home in the First Nation last week and suffered minor injuries, Courchaine said, adding there has been an increased presence of the animals within the community.
Local RCMP officers, who also live in the community, are aware of the increased number of bears in the area and have been patrolling and responding to sighting reports. Police have been in contact with the province, which dispatched several conservation officers in the wake of the attacks, she said.
Area residents are asked to remain “careful and vigilant” and should report any additional sightings to police or conservation officers, she added.
A provincial spokesperson said conservation officers are there to assist in the investigation, but it is “too early to speculate” about the animal involved in the attack.
Shamattawa resident William Miles said it is not uncommon for black bears to be spotted in the First Nation; the animals drawn to the local dump.
Black bears encountered in the wilderness outside the community tend to run away at first contact with humans but those inside Shamattawa have become bold, he said.
“We been cosying up to the bears. They (have) been harmless and (you) could stand close to them without them bothering you. But now this happens,” he said in a message to the Free Press.
A 2019 report from the province said between 1900 and 2017 just 71 fatal bear attacks occurred in North America. Of those, only three were recorded in Manitoba.
According to the provincial report, all three of the previous fatalities were the result of “predatory attacks” in which the animals considered the victims as prey and attacked them deliberately.
“A predatory bear’s approach will be deliberate and silent. This bear is the type you should be most concerned with. The head will be up and ears erect, displaying no signs of stress. The bear will be intensely focused on the person it considers its prey,” the report said.
In 2020, a Dauphin woman suffered minor injuries after being attacked by a black bear in Riding Mountain National Park.
Two years prior, officials in Whiteshell Provincial Park recorded two bear attacks, including one in which an eight-year-old girl was attacked inside her tent at a campsite on South Cross Lake. The other incident involved a couple hiking on the Mantario Trail.
The investigation into the Shamattawa man’s death is ongoing, RCMP said.
The Free Press was unable to reach Shamattawa Chief Jordna Hill Tuesday.
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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