Hunter found fatally mauled by bear in Alaska

An overdue hunter in Alaska was found dead Wednesday after an apparent attack by at least one brown bear, state police said.

Alaska State Troopers were called shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday after Tad Fujioka, 50, of Sitka, failed to return from a deer hunting trip, the law enforcement agency said.

A search was launched, and his remains were found at around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, state troopers said in a daily report of incidents.

“Investigation revealed he was the likely victim of a fatal bear mauling,” they said in the report.

Fujioka had killed a deer at the location before he was attacked by at least one bear, said Tim DeSpain, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

Investigators know a brown bear was involved because that’s the only type of bear in the area, DeSpain said.

“The area is remote and there are a lot of bears in that area,” he said.

State troopers and officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game searched for the bear or bears that might be responsible but did not find them, DeSpain said.

Sitka is a city and borough of about 8,400 people in the Alaska panhandle, southwest of Juneau.

Alaska has black bears, brown bears — which include grizzlies — and polar bears.

There are around 100,000 black bears and around 30,000 brown bears in Alaska, the state Department of Fish and Game says on its website. There are far fewer polar bears, which the state considers threatened, and they range far to the north of Sitka.