Photographer Mauled to Death by Polar Bears at Arctic Outpost
A photographer was mauled to death by a pair of polar bears while taking pictures of the animals at a remote Arctic radar site in northeastern Canada.
Christopher Best, a Canadian radar technician and amateur photographer, was killed on August 8 after leaving the Brevoort Island facility on Brevoort Island, an uninhabited area of Nunavut, to photograph a polar bear. The 34-year-old had only been working at the Arctic outpost for two days when the incident occurred.
According to a report into his death, Best had been informed by a wildlife monitor that bears were nearby. He had previously photographed the animals and requested updates from the monitor so he could capture additional images.
Earlier in the day, Best had taken photographs of a large polar bear, believing it to be alone. Surveillance footage indicates that a second bear was hidden nearby. While the photographer appeared to maintain a safe distance and had walked past a large polar bear warning sign, he did not notice the second animal lurking around. Both polar bears charged, attacking, and fatally mauling him.
The report states that surveillance video showed one of the bears blocking Best’s path toward a building, preventing him from reaching safety, while the other bear joined the attack.
Best had shared some of his polar bear photographs on social media and had reassured his family about the risks of taking images of the animals, according to a report by Canadian news outlet CBC.
“Chris said, ‘Well, yeah, they’re not close to us,’” his mother, Shelly Cox, recalled him telling his stepfather shortly before his death.
Cox tells CBC: “I don’t think he would have [gone] out if he would have known that second bear was there. We were just in shock.”
During the attack, other employees attempted to intervene, calling for a firearm and deploying a “bear-banger,” a device that produces a loud noise intended to scare bears away. However, according to the report, the device was fired too late to prevent Best’s death. One of the bears charged the responders after the banger was discharged, prompting employees to fire and kill the animal.
Image credits: Header photos via Facebook/Christopher Best.
