Authorities said they found the body of a hunter who had been missing for a while. The hunter had been attacked by a bear.
A report sent Wednesday by the Alaska State Troopers said that Tad Fujioka, 50, of Sitka, Alaska, was missing from a deer shooting trip on Tuesday evening.
Wildlife officers from the state and the U.S. Coast Guard sent out multiple search teams on Wednesday morning to look for Fujioka in a wooded area that was far away.
Fukuoka’s body was found around 11:30 a.m., and a “investigation revealed he was the likely victim of a fatal bear mauling,” according to the troopers.
The Associated Press said that brown bears had attacked Fujioka and eaten a deer he had killed.
In an email to The AP, troopers spokesman Tim DeSpain said that a Coast Guard helicopter saw three bears near the dead deer and told search teams about them.
The authorities said that Fujioka’s body was found and that his family has been informed.
Alaska is home to both black and polar bears, but grizzly and other brown bears are the most common type of bear there.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says that brown bears and grizzly bears are both common names for the same species of bear, Ursus arctos.
The biggest difference between them is where they live. Grizzlies tend to live in the north and the middle of the state, while brown bears tend to live along the southern coast.
Sitka is on Baranof Island, which is in the southeast of Alaska and about 90 miles southwest of Juneau.
In August, the government said that a hunter in Alaska was badly hurt after being mauled by a brown bear and shot while trying to fight it off.
