A Lethbridge couple was identified as the husband and wife that were killed in a grizzly bear attack in the backcountry near Banff last weekend.
Colette Derworiz writing for the Canadian Press (via CTV News):
Colin Inglis said his nephew, Doug Inglis, and Jenny Gusse, both 62, from Lethbridge, Alta., died in the bear attack on the weekend. Their seven-year-old border collie named Tris was also killed.
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“I got an actual phone call from Garmin saying that the SOS had been activated and that somebody had actually entered into the inReach (a message) that said, ‘Bear attack bad,'” he said Wednesday in an interview from Edmonton.
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Inglis said he was told that a bear spray canister had been emptied and that there were signs the couple tried to scare off the bear.
“There was a struggle and the struggle didn’t stay in one place,” he said. “But, in the end, both bodies were back together.
“They were reconnected. That’s who they were. They were together in life, always.”
My wife and I each have friends that were aquainted with one or both of them. Such a traumatic and heartbreaking story.
Parks Canada sent a team out and immediately put the bear down.
Parks Canada said the team, which is specially trained in firearms and wildlife attack site investigation and forensics, encountered a grizzly bear that displayed aggressive behaviour and charged toward them.
It was killed and a necropsy showed that the 25-year-old female bear was old, underweight and had bad teeth. DNA samples from the bear confirmed it was responsible for the attack, and it was not collared, tagged or previously known to wildlife staff in the park.
