A Canadian radar technician was mauled to death by a pair of polar bears as he took photos of them while working at a remote Arctic outpost, it emerged this week.
Christopher Best, 34, left the safety of the Brevoort Island facility the day after he arrived to work there, so that he could take photos of a bear on the grounds, a report into his Aug. 8 death revealed.
He had walked past a sign warning employees to be on the lookout for bears — and reassured his worried parents he was OK when they asked him hours earlier about photos of the bears he was posting online, they told CTV News
“Chris said, ‘Well, yeah, they’re not close to us,’” his mother, Shelly Cox, told CTV.
Best snapped photos of an enormous animal that he thought was alone — just to be cornered by a second bear lurking nearby, the report said.
Both bears charged, mauling and killing him, the report revealed.
“I don’t think he would have [gone] out if he would have known that second bear was there,” the mother said. “We were just in shock.”
Other employees called for a gun when they saw the attack, and a “bear-banger” shot — which creates a loud noise to scare the animals off — was eventually fired.
But it was too late to save Best — and one of the bears charged responders after the banger was fired, forcing employees to shoot and kill the animal.
Best had arrived at the base just a days before the accident.
He had also posted photos of a bear at the base just a day before he was killed — though it remains unclear if it was one of the same animals that killed him.
His mother said her son’s death could have been avoided if precautions, like fencing, were installed by the company that operated the outpost, Nasittuq.
A company report on the incident agreed with her position, but noted there had been no bear attacks on the facility since it opened 70 years ago. A polar bear was killed on the site in 2023, however, after it tried to get into a building and wouldn’t leave.
“We care deeply for the safety and well-being of all our employees and feel for everyone who continues to be affected by this tragic incident,” Nasittuq told CTV.
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