A 50-year-old hunter has been found dead in an apparent brown bear mauling on an island in south-eastern Alaska, authorities said Thursday.
Tad Fujioka, of Sitka, was reported overdue on Tuesday evening after not returning from a solo daylong hunting trip on the heavily forested Baranof Island, Alaska state troopers said.
State wildlife troopers, the US Coast Guard and Sitka search and rescue teams found Fujioka’s body on Wednesday. Bears had apparently mauled Fujioka and consumed a deer he had killed.
A Coast Guard helicopter located three brown bears in the area of the deer kill and alerted crews searching on the ground, Tim DeSpain, a troopers spokesperson, said in an email to the Associated Press.
Troopers, along with personnel from the Alaska department of fish and game, searched for the bears until dark but did not find them, DeSpain said. Fujioka’s body was recovered and his family was notified.