Arkansas officials have shot and killed a male black bear believed to have fatally mauled a 60-year-old Missouri man at his campsite in the Ozark National Forest last week. The victim, identified as Max Thomas of Springfield, Missouri, was found dead on Thursday, several yards outside the Sam's Throne campground in the remote northwest of the state.
Newton County Sheriff Glenn Wheeler said a deputy was dispatched after Mr Thomas's son reported not hearing from his father. Notably, Mr Thomas had sent his family pictures of a black bear in his camp on Tuesday morning. Upon arrival, the deputy found evidence of a struggle, including drag marks leading from the campground into the woods. The state medical examiner's office determined the death to be an 'animal mauling'.
On Sunday, a bear captured on a trail camera near the campground matched the animal photographed by the victim and another bear encountered by a man at a roadside overlook. Local hunters and hounds tracked the bear, which was killed and transported to Little Rock for DNA testing to confirm it was the attacker. Sheriff Wheeler noted the bear matched the size and facial colourations of the photographed bear.
This is the second fatal bear attack in Arkansas in recent weeks. In September, a 72-year-old man died after being attacked in Franklin County. Despite this, Don White Jr., a large mammal ecologist at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, said fatal attacks are 'exceedingly rare'. The last confirmed fatal bear attack in Arkansas was in 1892.
