A Canadian couple fatally attacked by a grizzly bear while camping were well versed in backcountry hikes and “took every precaution” against predatory wildlife during their travels, friends told The Post.
Jenny Gusse and Doug Inglis, both 62, and their dog Skip, were mauled to death by a bear on Sept. 29 inside Banff National Park after their bear spray failed to thwart the beast.
“I knew Doug and Jenny were planning a trip that time of year,” longtime friend Ron Teather, 77, said in an interview Friday.
“I think it was a very desperate bear that considered them food. “He wasn’t interested in their food stash, he was interested in them,” Teather speculated.
The friend, from Ottawa, Canada, said he has taken several backcountry canoe trips with Gusse and Inglis over the past 20 years.
“Their skill level was extremely high, they were conservative. They took every precaution possible,” he stated.
Teather, also a scientist, said his food had been stored outside the camp and would have been hung from a tree. In his last conversation with Inglis, his friend informed her that he had purchased “animal-proof food storage.”
Jenny Gusse and Doug Inglis, both 62, and their dog Skip, seven, were fatally attacked by a bear on September 29 inside Banff National Park after their bear spray failed to thwart the hungry beast. Ron Teather Longtime friend Ron Teather, 77, who has taken several canoe trips with the couple over the past 20 years, told The Post on Friday that he suspected the “predatory” bear was “very desperate” and “considered them meal”. He said: “He wasn’t interested in their food reservation, he was interested in them.” credit Ron Theater
“This food warehouse was bear-proof,” Teather said.
Another friend, Mark Goettel, 69, who met Inglis at the University of Alberta, where the latter was his research technician, reiterated to The Post that the couple was highly skilled and “knew exactly what they were doing.”
“He was very careful, every time he was so careful,” Goettel, of Lethbridge, said in a phone interview Friday. “I remember him talking to me about camping and how you had to go so far to even pee from your tent. “He would tell me all the safety precautions.”
The experienced hikers had shared their entire seven-day itinerary with Inglis’s uncle, Colin Inglis, and had stayed in contact with him via a satellite communication device.
Just hours after informing him that they were late that fateful night, Colin would receive a disturbing message: “Bear attack, bad,” he told the Calgary Herald.
Their friend Mark Goettel, 69, of Lethbridge, told The Post that the couple was very skilled and “knew exactly what they were doing.” Ron Teather The experienced hikers had shared their entire seven-day itinerary with Inglis’ uncle and had stayed in contact with him via a satellite communication device. Peter Adams/Danita Delimont – stock.adobe.com
When rescuers arrived at the couple’s camp, they found the scientists’ mutilated bodies, an empty can of bear spray, and their e-readers still open in their crushed tent.
Rescuers found the underweight female bear who they believe carried out the attack and shot it as it was still showing signs of aggression.
“In their words, the bear intended to kill them,” Colin told the Herald.
Inglis’s friends remembered him as an “extremely successful scientist” and “go-getter,” who often cycled to work, wore shorts during the colder months, and was “very concerned about the environment.”
“[He] He was very smart,” Goettel said. “She was one of those people who ran. “He was that kind of person.”
When rescuers arrived at the couple’s camp, they found the scientists’ mutilated bodies, an empty can of bear spray, and their e-readers still open in their crushed tent. AFP via Getty Images
“Doug was an extremely hard-working scientist,” Teather said. “He had great success. And Jenny was a very, very good technician who could be trusted. They worked together for almost their entire adult lives.
Goettel said Inglis was “always” with Jenny, and Teather remembers their friends as “very devoted to each other.”
Teather said he will also forever remember the “many very pleasant evenings” he spent with the couple after a long day canoeing, talking about work and future plans.
“Just a lot of comfortable nights,” he said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn