US /

US Hiker Mauled by Polar Bear

Matt Dyer in stable condition in Montreal: wife
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 28, 2013 8:40 AM CDT
US Hiker Mauled by Polar Bear
A polar bear mauled a US hiker in northeastern Canada.   (Shutterstock)

A hiker from Maine was in his tent in northeastern Canada when a polar bear hauled him out and proceeded to maul him on Wednesday. Fellow hikers were able to stop the early-morning attack using flares that frightened the animal, CBC reports, causing it to release victim Matt Dyer. The lawyer is now in "in critical but stable condition" at a Montreal hospital, his wife says. He was taken to the hospital following a helicopter lift to base camp.

The bear, who managed to break through an electric fence, didn't harm anyone else on the eight-member Sierra Club journey to the 3,700-square-mile Torngat Mountains National Park. "Visitors regularly encounter polar bears whenever they are in Torngat Mountains, but we've never had an attack like this since the park was established in 2005," a parks official tells the Kennebec Journal. Visitors are urged to hire armed Inuit guards against polar bears, but Dyer's group didn't have one, CBC reports. (It has been a deadly week for American hikers; click here or here for more on recent tragedies.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X