Alberta's Banff National Park is a mountain park with both grizzly and black bears/Jennifer Bain
Two people have been killed by a grizzly bear in Alberta’s Banff National Park.
Parks Canada received an alert from a GPS device in the Red Deer River Valley around 8 p.m. on Friday indicating a bear attack. A team specially trained in wildlife attacks was immediately mobilized, but weather prevented them from using helicopter and so they had to race to the scene by ground.
At 1 a.m. on Sept. 30, they discovered the bodies of two people. They also encountered a grizzly “displaying aggressive behaviour” in the area and euthanized it.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrived at 5 a.m. to transport the victims to Sundre. No further details have been released.
A closure is in place around the attack area — including the Red Deer and Panther valleys, from Snow Creek Summit east to the park boundary, and north to Shale Pass — until further notice.
The mountain park is home to both grizzly and black bears. Earlier in September, two grizzlies (possibly a mother and cub) followed a guided group of 13 hikers down a trail in the park for 20 minutes and even made a few bluff charges at the group. That happened along Consolation Lake Trail near Moraine Lake. The bears stayed within 10 to 20 metres (32 to 64 feet) of the hikers.
