A brown bear killed a hiker and mauled another man in Anchorage, Alaska, police said.
Michael Soltis had been reported missing after he left his home Monday for a hike, the Anchorage Police Department said. On Wednesday, one of the people searching for Soltis was attacked by a brown bear and taken to a hospital with serious leg injuries. That man is expected to survive.
After the attack, police searched for the bear in the woods. They found Soltis’ body and confirmed he died in a bear attack.
“It appears the brown bear was protecting the body when it attacked a member of the search party,” the police statement said.
Police were searching for the bear.
The attack came a year after teen was fatally mauled by a bear in the Anchorage area during a race.
Brown bears can measure almost 9 feet when standing and weigh as much as 1,000 pounds, according to the National Park Service.
Alaskan brown bears are the largest.