Man Killed by Grizzly Got Too Close, Took Pictures

Attack was first bear killing in Denali Park history
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 26, 2012 8:02 AM CDT
Man Killed by Grizzly Got Too Close, Took Pictures
In this Sept. 11, 2011 photo, two bears walk across the tundra at Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. A bear killed a backbacker on Friday, the first bear-killing in the park's history.   (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

A backpacker killed by a grizzly bear in Alaska's Denali National Park on Friday—the first fatal bear mauling in Alaska since 2005—ignored park rules about maintaining an adequate distance, according to photos recovered from his own camera, reports the Anchorage Daily News. The park requires visitors to keep at least a quarter-mile away from bears and to leave an area immediately if they find themselves closer than that—rules that were part of the training 49-year-old Richard White received when he applied for his permit.

But photos on White's camera shows that he came within 50 yards of a grizzly on Friday and took pictures for at least eight minutes—the same bear that killed White a short time later. It was the first known fatal bear attack in the park's 90-year history. Troopers killed the bear believed to have killed White the next day, after finding the male grizzly and another bear defending White's body as a food source. (More Alaska stories.)

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