ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A polar bear chased several residents around a small, isolated Native Alaskan 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 rupture, the first in more than 30 years in Alaska, occurred Tuesday near the school in Wells, an isolated coastal community in the Bering Strait located on the westernmost tip of the North American mainland — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Russia – which is no stranger to living with polar bears.
Summer Miomik of St. Michael and her son, Clyde Ongtowasruk, were killed in the attack, Alaska State Police said in a statement.
Miomik’s parents declined interviews with The Associated Press when reached at their home Wednesday.
“It’s very, very sad for St. Michael and Wells right now,” said Virginia Washington, St. Michael’s city administrator. She said Myomick splits time between the two communities.
“She was a very nice lady, she was very responsible,” Washington said.
Like many remote villages in Alaska, the mostly Inupiaq community of about 150 people organizes patrols when bears are expected in town, from July to early November, which is before the sea ice forms and the bears head out onto the frozen landscape for to hunt seals.
That makes what happened this week almost unheard of because polar bears are usually far out on the ice in the dead of winter and not near villages, said Jeff York, senior director of conservation at Polar Bear International, a conservation group. The last fatal polar bear encounter in Alaska was in 1990.
“I would be walking around the Wells community probably without any (bear) deterrents because historically that’s the safe time of year,” said York, who has decades of experience studying polar bears. “You don’t expect to run into bears because they would be hunting seals in the sea ice and going about their business.”
Bad weather and a lack of lights on the gravel track in Wells prevented soldiers and wildlife officers from reaching Wells on Tuesday after the attack. Attempts were made again on Wednesday.
When asked to describe the mood in Wells on Wednesday, Dawn Hendrickson, a school principal, called it “traumatic.” Classes were canceled and counselors were provided.
She said there have been no reports yet of memorials for the two victims. “We’re still in the early stages,” she said.
It is not clear whether this attack is related to climate change, but it is in line with what is expected, as the Arctic continues to warm four times more than the rest of the Earth, changing the ecosystem in ways that are not yet fully understood, said York.
This particular bear, however, is a member of a population that is doing quite well, said Andrew Desrocher, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta and an expert on polar bears.
Alaskan scientists from the US Geological Survey found in 2019 that changes in sea ice habitat coincided with evidence that land use by polar bears was increasing and that the chances of encountering a polar bear had increased.
Wells is just over 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Nome. The community is accessible by plane and boats, including barges that deliver household goods. Winter trails provide snowmobile access to other communities and livelihoods. ATVs are used for non-winter hunting and fishing.
Polar bears are the largest species of bear, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Males can weigh more than 1,700 pounds (771 kilograms), but typically weigh 600 to 1,200 pounds (272–544 kilograms) and reach up to 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Females weigh 400 to 700 pounds (181-318 kilograms). Polar bears usually 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 encounters with polar bears usually involve young bears, usually males, who are hungry all the time, or older bears who are injured or sick and have difficulty getting enough calories.
“Both species of bear are more willing to take risks, as we’ve seen here in Wales,” Yorke said.
Unlike brown or black bears, polar bears do not hibernate during the winter. Only pregnant females enter snow dens and only for breeding.
All other polar bears are outdoors, usually on sea ice, where their prey is available year-round.
The Alaska Nannut Cooperative Management Council, which was created to represent “the collective voice of Alaska Natives in the co-management of polar bears,” says on its website that polar bears near or entering villages pose ongoing concerns for the safety of communities in polar bear territory.
The group notes several polar bear patrol programs in Alaska, including for Wells, which it says are seeking funding to sustain operations.
York said the Wells community has long been involved in establishing a polar bear patrol program and taking measures to keep polar bears out of the community.
“This seems to be just one of those horrible cases where even though we were doing the right things, we had a bear that was out of the ordinary at a time of year when you would never expect it to happen,” he said.
The bear is from a population in the Chukchi Sea that is doing well in the face of climate change, Desrocher said. This means that the attack may be the result of a bear attracted to attractants such as food or garbage.
Polar bears from the southern Beaufort Sea, east of the Chukchi Sea population, are in worse shape, Desrocher said.
In this case, although there is ice in the Chukchi and northern Bering Seas, the quality of that ice is not as well known. More importantly, York said they don’t know what’s going on under the ice — or what the availability of seals and other prey is for the polar bears.
Changes also happen in winter when people think they are safe from the polar bears that are on the coast.
“Communities may not be anymore,” York said.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.
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