A teenage mountain biker was killed after going off course during a race and being attacked by a black bear.
Patrick Cooper was heading back halfway through a popular Alaskan mountain race when he somehow veered off course and became lost, resulting in a rare encounter with a black bear and the death of the 16-year-old Anchorage boy in a rare bird of prey attack.
Cooper began running and at one point reportedly made a frantic call to his brother, telling him he was being chased by a bear during Sunday’s Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb race south of Anchorage. His brother notified race director Brad Plekosky, who alerted the race crew to begin a search for Cooper, who is known as Jack.
It took several hours for rescuers to find the boy’s body, which was found about a mile up the road at an elevation of about 1,500 feet (457 meters). The bear was found at the scene guarding the body.
Patrick Cooper was killed in an attack by a black bear, a rare act of predation.
A ranger at Chugach State Park shot the 250-pound bear in the face, but it ran off.
Alaska State Troopers said the boy’s body was airlifted from the scene on Sunday.
State parks officials were searching the area Monday for the bear, said Ken Marsh, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Sunday’s attack was an unusual predatory behavior, he said, and not a defensive one like when a female bear protects her cubs.
“This is very unusual,” Marsh said of the attack. “It’s like being struck by lightning.”
A second fatal black bear attack was reported late Monday about 300 miles northeast of Anchorage. Officials at an underground gold mine reported that a contractor hired to collect geological samples was killed and another was injured in the attack.
According to previous reports, Cooper texted his mother saying he was being chased by a bear.
The attack at Pogo Mine was reported by Alaska State Troopers and federal mining officials.
After his tragic death, the road remained closed.
Matt Wedeking, Alaska State Parks division operations manager, said the bear’s predatory behavior was unusual. When asked if the black bear had any cubs in the area, he said, “I don’t know. It’s possible that there were. But we don’t have any information on the bear at this time.”
Prekoski said wilderness areas like Sunday’s race are inherently at higher risk of encountering a bear. Participants in the Bird Ridge race sign a liability waiver as part of the registration process.
But athletes often train alone in such areas and are well aware of the dangers, and races actually reduce the risk of encountering a bear because of the large numbers of people gathering, making noise and making their presence known, Prekoski said. “There’s never a safer time to be out in the mountains than during a race,” he said.
