A 30-year-old soldier in Alaska, Usa, Sass Michael Plant, was reportedly killed by her beloved brown bear mother because of her proximity to her brown bear cubs.
Plant was reportedly an infantryman in the third battalion of the 509th Parachute Regiment and was working in a training area at Joint Base Ermendorf-Richardson at the time of the attack. On May 12, local time, the Alaska Army said in a press release that Plant was taken to an Army base hospital after being wounded, where he was pronounced dead. Another soldier was also wounded in the attack, suffered minor injuries and recovered after receiving treatment.
According to information released by the Alaska Department of Fishing and Hunting, the area where Plant was attacked was located in a remote area of the Joint Base Ermendorf-Richardson. After the attack, the head of the Alaska Fishing and Hunting Department was called to the area and found a bear's nest nearby with two brown bear cubs.
Speaking at a news conference, Cindy Wardlow, director of south-central regions at Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, said: "Based on everything we know so far, as well as field investigations and other information, this appears to be a defensive attack by a mother bear to protect her cubs." We are working to restore the truth to improve public safety around Alaska's wildlife. He added that while these animals tend to "avoid or ignore humans," they are also dangerous.
Currently, staff from the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Service are working with the Alaska Wildlife Mounted Police, the Alaska Department of Fishing and Hunting, and other agencies to investigate the attack.
By convention, bears deemed to pose a threat to public safety or involved in a lethal attack could be killed by U.S. authorities. However, jurisprudence is nothing more than human nature. In 2011, there was a case of grizzly bears attacking tourists to death in Yellowstone Park, and the park management unit ruled that the grizzly bear was in self-defense based on the victim's wife's statement and spared it the death penalty.
The mother bear is now missing, and if it is recovered, I don't know if it will be seen as sparing it from capital punishment for the sake of protecting the cubs.