Man mauled to death by grizzly bear during moose hunting trip

Days before his 23^rd birthday, Austin Pfeiffer, was fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in Alaska, United States. The man from Mansfield, Ohio had gone to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve on a 10-day hunting trip with his friend. On Sunday, September 20, the trip came to a tragic end when the young hunter was attacked by the bear. The incident is believed to be the first fatal grizzly attack to have taken place in the park.

Austin and an unnamed friend had embarked on a 10-day long hunting trip. They were on the hunt for moose in the south Alaskan national park. The hunting party had an encounter with a grizzly bear near the Chisana River drainage which became fatal for the 22-year-old foreman.

The park authorities are investigating the incident. Details of the attack have not been made public. After Austin's death, an Alaska state trooper called the Mansfield Police Department informing them of the incident involving the local. The Mansfield Police Department contacted the deceased man's wife, Ryleigh Hunter Pfeiffer, informing her of the unfortunate event.

Since the mammoth 13.2-million-acre national park was established in 1980, Austin is the first person to have been killed by a grizzly bear, Mansfield News Journal reported. In the 40-year history of the largest national park in the US, human interaction with the bears have not ended in a fatality.

The victim was with two local hunters on the day of the incident. The men were tending to the carcass of a moose they had just hunted when the bear attacked. One of the hunters reportedly shot the grizzly dead. They were unable to save Austin as his wounds were too severe.

Austin would have turned 23 on Tuesday, September 22. He had been married to Ryleigh since October 2018. His family refused to comment on the incident.

The death of the Ohio man is the second fatal grizzly bear attack in Alaska in the past couple of months. On July 29, Daniel Schilling was mauled to death by a bear near his cabin in Hope, Alaska. An empty can of bear repellent was found at the scene. The 43-year-old man's body was discovered after his dog returned home without him, leading to a search for the missing man.