The Camera Shy Bear That Ate Richard White

Denali National Park lies 240 miles north of Anchorage and features over 4 million acres of pristine wilderness. This is exactly what drew 49 year old Richard White to the area and fueled his fascination with gathering amazing wildlife photos. Richard had finally put his ultimate vacation plan into action and even took the mandatory bear awareness training and packed his backpack with all the necessary equipment he would need for his trip.

Richard traveled to Denali and completed all of his trip paperwork and indicated he had had over 30 years of backpacking experience. Officials were not overly concerned given the info that was provided on his paperwork and issued his 5 day visitor pass.

Richard hit the trail by himself and instantly started soaking in the sights and sounds of the wilderness. He was finally alone in the wild and couldn’t seem to stop taking pictures of landscapes, moose, bear, salmon and nearly endless series of breathtaking sky views. It was on day three that Richard was hiking along the scenic Toklat River and enjoying the fresh air, clear skies and the freedom. The August weather was rainy and brisk but most of all, welcoming.

In the distance Richard noticed a brown lump slowly moving along some willow near the river upstream about three miles south of the road. He approached the animal and determined that he had finally found a grizzly bear, also known as a brown bear. He had seen many brown bears through his hiking adventures and had never had a problem with any of them. He decided he would get a closer look. His shutter clicked quietly as the bear seemed oblivious of Richard's presence. Richard watched as the bear grazed on greens along the riparian zone near the river.

The bear remained ignorant of Richard so he closed the distance to within about fifty yards. He was capturing amazing photos of the world's fiercest land predator on a very personal level. These shots were going to be great!

Dan was hiking the trail through Denali when he and his two friends came upon a curious site. There was someone’s backpack lying in the trail. The hikers next saw some torn up clothing. Moving a little further off trail they saw a scene where the grass and bushes were all disturbed and then they found blood. The group realized this must have been a bear attack and hurried back to the road to find help.

After the hikers alerted the park rangers it took them only about 2 ½ hours to get to the scene by helicopter. As they flew over the area they found a single boar grizzly bear guarding an apparent food cache. They hurriedly set their helicopter down and immediately found Richard's remains, partially consumed by the bear. The bear ran away as the men approached the kill site, but returned to chase the recovery team from his kill. The rangers watched carefully as the bear began to circle them methodically, seemingly looking for a weakness. They decided to back off and try a recovery on another day as the daylight was fading and the bear was exerting his claim to the body.
That Saturday they returned and recovered Richard's body and any of his belongings they could find. One of the items they found was Richard's blood soaked camera. Upon examining the photos in the camera the rangers discovered amazing photos, one after another. The last several shots were of the bear and with each shot the distance between the man and the bear seemed to get shorter and shorter. The final few photos were the most telling. The bear was looking straight at the photographer for the first time in the series and was photographed closing the distance on the man.
Officials shot the bear and completed a necropsy on the bruin. Examination of the bear stomach contents proved that this was the bear that killed and ate Richard White.