A mother and her baby died in a suspected grizzly bear attack in Canada’s Yukon territory, officials said Wednesday.
Valerie Theoret, 37, had apparently stepped out for a walk with her 10-month-old daughter Adele in the remote wilderness on Monday when the animal pounced.
Their bodies were discovered by the child’s father not far from their cabin on the shores of Einarson Lake, more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) northeast of Whitehorse, the Yukon’s only city.
Almost immediately after happening across the devastating scene he was confronted by a bear, assumed almost certainly to be the same animal, but managed to shoot and kill it as it charged toward him.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the coroner are investigating the “suspected bear attack,” a statement said.
The couple were described by friends on social media as competent bush people.
They had settled in the cabin for the duration of Theoret’s maternity leave from teaching at a Whitehorse elementary school.
Increasingly erratic climate and encroachment on their habitat hindering foraging has been blamed for several animal attacks in the past two years in Canada, including the killing of an Inuit hunter by a polar bear in Nunavut in August.
Fatal bear attacks are rare in Canada. (AFP)
