By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A British Columbia elk hunter who was mauled by a grizzly bear earlier this month near Fort Steele died over the weekend from complications, according to the CBC.
Hs was possibly the fourth bear mauling fatality this year in North America, with three others being posted earlier in the U.S., two in Arkansas and one in Florida, all involving black bears.
Joe Pendry, 63, was reportedly hunting near Fort Steele, north of Cranbrook on Oct. 2 when the attack occurred. Reports indicate he encountered an adult bear and two cubs. An experienced outdoorsman and hunting guide, Pendry survived the initial attack despite some horrific injuries. He suffered broken arms and cheekbones, lost a finger, was bitten on the head and his nose was broken, the CBC said.
According to a report by Outdoor Life, Pendry managed to call for help, and he also called his son. He underwent several surgeries.
Pendry reportedly managed to shoot the bear in the leg.
Cause of death was attributed to a blood clot.
While bear attacks are rare, they do happen, and even though many involve coastal brown or grizzly bears, black bears have been responsible for several fatal attacks. The three U.S. bear attacks this year all involved black bears, as did one in 2023 in California, and the same year in Arizona. In 2021, there were fatal black bear attacks in Alberta and Colorado.
Last year, a brown bear killed a deer hunter near Sitka, Alaska, and in 2023, brown/grizzly bears were blamed for two fatal attacks, one in Banff National Park in Alberta and the other in Montana near West Yellowstone.
One person who has written extensively about bear attacks is Dean Weingarten, at Ammoland News. A week ago, he did an article about the effectiveness of handguns in bear attacks, and in September, he wrote about the legal standard for claiming self-defense in a grizzly bear attack. Grizzlies are protected species in the Lower 48, while they are managed as game animals in Alaska.
