Shamattawa on high alert after series of bear attacks, says man who was mauled

Waylon Thomas says he was alone in his Shamattawa home last week when he saw a bear crawling out of his kitchen window.

"Once that bear [saw] me, it just crawled back inside and came after me and went out the door and followed me outdoors," where it attacked him late on the evening of July 24, he said.

"I didn't really feel nothing. When that bear scratched me twice and bit me twice, like, I didn't feel nothing — not till later on."

Thomas isn't the only person in the northeastern Manitoba community to be attacked by a bear recently.

On Monday, a 60-year-old man was found dead in a wooded area near a path, with evidence suggesting animal predation, RCMP said. They believe the animal involved was a bear.

Thomas said the man killed was his uncle, John Wood, who had been reported missing a few days earlier.

Barbara Skeid, director of Shamattawa Health Services, said a child around six years old was also injured by a bear, also inside a home. 

All the attacks happened within days of each other, she said.

RCMP said there has been an increased bear presence in the area, and the province has said conservation officers were sent out to help with the investigation into the death.

People who live in the area are accustomed to black bears roaming around, but Skeid said in all the years she's lived there, she's never seen anything like this, adding she chased a bear away from her own deck.

"Even in my own house, he came in," she said.

In the past, "people would go feed [them]. They were always around people," she said. "They didn't hurt anyone."

Skeid said a planned camp outing for the whole community has been cancelled in light of the situation, and members of the community have been patrolling the area, hunting for bears.

"Even one of the [band] councillors, constantly he's driving around the bushes, and sometimes he'll take one or two men with him," she said.