Alaskan Black Bears Revolt: 2 Humans Killed, Another Hurt In 'Rare' Back-To-Back Maulings

ANCHORAGE, AK — In what experts are calling a highly unusual outbreak of "predatory" violence among Alaskan black bears, two humans were mauled to death and another injured within hours of each other near Anchorage this week.

The first victim was identified by local authorities as Patrick "Jack" Cooper, a 16-year-old who was competing in a mountain race just south of the state capital over the weekend. By late Sunday, he had completed half the Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb — but then veered off the trail somehow and became lost in the wilderness, according to multiple reports.

It was there, lost in the woods, that Cooper reportedly encountered the black bear who would end up killing him in a rare "predatory attack."

The boy called his brother in a panic Sunday night to say he was being chased by a bear, ABC News reported. His brother then notified the race's director, who sent out crews to search for the teen.

But tragically, by the time search crews found Cooper — some two hours later, one mile up the path, at around 1,500 vertical feet — he was already dead.

And the bear who killed him was still there, guarding his body, according to ABC.

A Chugach State Park ranger reportedly shot the 250-pound animal in the face, but it ran away. The boy's body was then airlifted out.

State park workers were still searching for the injured bear this week.

Sunday's attack was particularly jarring, a spokesman for the state's Fish and Game department told ABC, as it appeared to be predatory — as opposed to a defensive action taken by, say, a female bear trying to protect her young.

"It's very unusual," spokesman Ken Marsh said. "It's sort of like someone being struck by lightning."

And to make things even more bizarre, later that same day, a second deadly black bear mauling was reported some 300 miles northeast of Anchorage.

Managers at an underground gold mine in the area told government officials that an unidentified contract employee, who had been hired to take geological samples, was killed — and another person injured — in the second attack.

Alaska state troopers and federal mine officials are currently investigating the Pogo Mine mauling.

The last time a black bear killed anyone in Alaska was in 2013, when a middle-aged man was mauled to death at his cabin near Delta Junction, in the state's interior. And before that, only five totals deaths had ever been blamed on black bears in Alaska, researchers told ADN.com.

"The black bear — that's really odd," Tom Smith, a local bear attack expert, told the news site.

Bear attacks are even more rare in the greater Anchorage area. In the last deadly attack, in 1995, two people were killed near Turnagain Arm by a brown bear that was protecting a moose carcass, the state's Fish and Game spokesman told ABC.

A funeral service for Cooper is scheduled at the Anchorage Church of Christ (2700 Debarr Rd.) this Saturday at 6 p.m. A full obituary for the boy is expected to be published soon in the Alaska Dispatch News.

Photo by Jitze Couperus/Flickr