Teacher likely killed by wolves

[Riverbottom]

Teacher likely killed by wolves, troopers say
Authorities seek to capture or kill animals

http://www.adn.com/2010/03/11/1179368/t ... olves.html

By JAMES HALPIN

(03/11/10 17:43:13)
Alaska State Troopers today said a woman found dead in Chignik Lake early this week was most likely killed in a wolf attack, and state authorities are on their way there to try to capture or kill the animals.

Candice Berner, 32, appeared to have been killed Monday evening during a run along a remote road outside the community on the Alaska Peninsula, according to troopers. An autopsy this morning determined the cause of death was "multiple injuries due to animal mauling," troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said in a statement.

Based on interviews with biologists and villagers in Chignik Lake, troopers concluded wolves were the animals most likely responsible, she said.

The state Department of Fish and Game wanted to conduct DNA testing to help study the incident, but troopers are convinced it was a wolf attack, troopers director Col. Audie Holloway said.

"We are as close to 100 percent certain as you can be," Holloway said.

Troopers investigating the scene found many wolf tracks around the body and bloody drag marks in the snow, he said. Berner's body had been partially predated and had teeth marks on the throat, which was severely damaged and likely was the injury that caused her death, Holloway said.

Investigators were able to conclude after the autopsy that the animal injuries caused the death and were not inflicted post-mortem, he said.

"She was bleeding as she was being moved, being drug, and the damage to the throat," Holloway said. "The medical examiner concluded that she wasn't killed by any other method and that the damage to the throat was severe. There were animal bite marks on the throat.

"Wolves, just like big cats, usually attack the windpipe area and try to control the victim that way."

It appeared the attack was predatory, motivated by wolves wanting something to eat, he said.

Holloway said troopers and Fish and Game biologists were on their way to Chignik Lake today, planning to capture or kill the responsible wolves. They believe at least two or three were involved, he said.

"We'll stay as long as we can to make sure the public feels as safe as we can make them feel living in Alaska," he said.

Berner, a 32-year-old special education teacher based in Perryville, was found dead Monday evening by a group on snowmachines traveling along a road outside Chignik Lake.

Berner, originally from Slippery Rock, Pa., stood about 4 feet, 11 inches tall and was an athletic person, an avid runner, according to her family. Officials from the Lake and Peninsula School District said Berner, who arrived in Chignik Lake on Monday -- though she had been there before -- left work at the end of the day Monday to go for a run.

The snowmachiners came across the scene of her death a short time later. They reported seeing gloves in the road, blood and Berner's body having been dragged off the road down a hill. Parts of her body had been mangled, they said.

In the wake of the death, villagers began hunting for wolves in the area, which they say have been coming increasingly closer to town in search of food.

[pegleg]

The most we can hope from this is that it will open some eyes as to the outcome of wolf intro however if people don't want to listen they wont and thats the problem with putting a non realistic ideology behind wildlife management. It really sucks when it takes human life to point out the fact animals aren't living by our "rules" and that some people will try to rationalize this by saying they were BAD wolves the rest aren't like that.

[Benny G]

The biggest problem is that it doesn't affect the poeple making the rules. Everyone has their own agenda. I really thought that back when California voters had the chance to leagalize lion hunting again the lions would become managed to some degree. Even after several attacks involving death and partial consumption, since the voters weren't DIRECTLY affected, the big kitties just need to be left alone. When people are taken out of rural settings for too many generations they become more than ignorant, perhaps even stupid (by their own choices) since nothing outside of their neighborhood concerns them.

[ALEX]

Exactly.