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File photo Shutterstock/Sorin Colac

Experts bewildered by ‘lightning strike’ surge in fatal bear attacks in Alaska

Forest trails have been closed and events cancelled in the wake of the attacks.

A RASH OF bear attacks in Alaska has left wildlife experts searching for answers.

The state is experiencing a marked increase in attacks, with four people attacked in less than a week, including two deadly encounters that came on consecutive days last weekend.

The series of incidents has led to forest trails being closed to the public and the popular Crow Pass Crossing run, scheduled for July, has already been cancelled, Alaskan media report.

The first attack took place on 18 June when 16-year-old Jack Cooper was chased by a black bear after running a race in Anchorage.

Cooper tried to phone his family to alert them that he was being chased but he could not be reached in time and he was killed by the animal.

Just a day later biological technician Erin Johnson was also mauled and killed while collecting geological samples.

Last week Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued a statement saying that they are still investigating another fatal attack which took place on Monday of last week.

In that instance two mine employees were attacked, one of them fatally. The second employee was rescued by a mine helicopter.

The bear was killed by a mine employee who returned with a rifle. According to the Department:

Early reports suggested the attack showed signs of being predatory, but biologists say further examination of events and the bear involved is needed before a definitive conclusion can be reached.

Alaska Fish and Game said bear attacks of any kind are relatively uncommon and predatory attacks on humans are extremely rare. Of 207 attacks between 1980 and 2014 in Alaska only three were categorised as fatal predatory black bear attacks.

Non-fatal attacks

The fatal attacks this month have been followed by two more non-fatal maulings.

James Fredrick and his friend Alex Ippoliti were attacked while cycling in Eagle River, Anchorage. Frederick suffered an intense mauling and he said he has  his friend to thanks for saving his life.

“I immediately just started yelling ‘help,’” he told Alaska Dispatch News from his hospital bed.

I can’t exaggerate how fast this was. I don’t think it lasted more than 7 or 8 seconds… Alex straight up saved my life, I’d be dead right now without Alex.

The fourth victim was 45-year-old Joshua Brekken who suffered minor injuries when he was charged by a bear while walking, according to the Daily News Miner.

Alaska Fish and Game biologist Dave Battle said experts are stumped by the spate of attacks. “The long and short of it is that no one knows exactly what’s going on,” he said to ABC.

Rick Sinnott, who has worked as Fish and Game wildlife biologist for 28 years, said the attacks are unprecedented.

“It hasn’t happened in Alaska, they have two black bear attacks two days apart. There’s only been six predatory black bear attacks in Alaska that I know of I think in history. So, all of the sudden to have two in the course of two days, it’s a lightning strike,” he said to local media.

Read: Teenager who was killed by bear sent text to his family while being chased >

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37 Comments
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    Mute Ed
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    May 19th 2021, 9:48 AM

    Unbeknownst? Time for these companies to be hammered for such “errors”.

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    Mute John Murphy
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    May 19th 2021, 10:20 AM

    @Ed: That’s usually the case in leaks. The company often gets alerted by people who suffered from the leak a year or so after the fact.
    BTW this site is a handy way to search the lists of publicly known leaks: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

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    Mute Eugene Norman
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    May 19th 2021, 2:47 PM

    @John Murphy: my iPhone told me I was owned when I tried to log into a website the other day and suggested I change the password there. A government website as well but not in Ireland.

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    Mute SteveBuzzard
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    May 19th 2021, 10:19 AM

    “700,000 documents dating from 2014 to 2017 were stored in the folder, including some passports, drivers’ licenses and compliance-related forms”

    So nothing is private any more, all our private information is now floating around cyber space freely available to criminals.
    Will anybody be held to account?? will customers be compensated?? Joke of a country, can do nothing right. Those responsible should be face criminal charges.

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    Mute Eugene Norman
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    May 19th 2021, 2:48 PM

    @SteveBuzzard: what’s the “country” got to do with a private company. They should have deleted most of this info though, according to GDPR rules.

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    Mute Phil Redmond
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    May 19th 2021, 3:20 PM

    @Eugene Norman: Not true. GDPR does not put any time scale on how long companies have to hold data. The Data Protection Act requires them to delete it 7 years after the end of the relationship with the individual so actually very little of it should have been deleted

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    Mute Franky Jefferson
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    May 19th 2021, 10:14 AM

    I thought they are supposed to delete verification documents after a certain period… Not keep them.

    Prosecutions? I imagine not of course.

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    May 19th 2021, 10:22 AM

    @Franky Jefferson: yeah, all customer data can only be stored for a maximum of 6 months.

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    Mute Phil Redmond
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    May 19th 2021, 10:28 AM

    @Peter Cavey: Incorrect. GDPR does not put a time frame how long companies can hold you’re data. The Data Protection Act requires companies to delete data after 7 years

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    Mute M. Murphy
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    May 19th 2021, 2:26 PM

    @Peter Cavey: Incorrect. Best not comment without correct facts

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    Mute Eugene Norman
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    May 19th 2021, 3:02 PM

    @M. Murphy: People do be getting very heated about GDPR.

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    Mute Marty Lawless
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    May 19th 2021, 9:45 AM

    Was it leaky Leo

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    Mute Biscuits Patinkin
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    May 21st 2021, 9:32 AM

    @Marty Lawless: who?? Oh.. you mean Leako Varadkar

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    Mute D. Memery
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    May 19th 2021, 10:20 AM

    The statement that there is no evidence that the data was accessed rings false when you consider it was an external, independent company that found the data publicly accessible. Unless the server itself was publicly available on the cloud, a serious data security error in of itself, the data had to be accessed for it to have become publicly available.

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    Mute SteveBuzzard
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    May 19th 2021, 10:20 AM

    “700,000 documents dating from 2014 to 2017 were stored in the folder, including some passports, drivers’ licenses and compliance-related forms”

    So nothing is private any more, all our private information is now floating around cyber space freely available to criminals.
    Will anybody be held to account?? will customers be compensated?? Joke of a country, can do nothing right. Those responsible should face criminal charges.

    13
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    Mute Phil Redmond
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    May 19th 2021, 10:38 AM

    @SteveBuzzard: Oh FFS don’t be so dramatic. Yes they will be held accountable. The company will be investigated and sanctioned by the Central Bank and the Data Protection Commissioner. As for compensation unless there is evidence that anyone has suffered a loss or damage as a result of the leak then no they will not be compensated as there is no loss or damage to be compensated for

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    Mute Dav Nagle
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    May 19th 2021, 10:46 AM

    The more info one has to provide the greater the leak! Convoluted EU nonsensical process management at its finest.

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    Mute Jim O Brien Tech
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    May 19th 2021, 1:45 PM

    Did you purposely forget to mention the Irish times to plug our own.

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