ROAD HUNTER

For four years the author lived on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Attacks on humans by Sumatran tigers are not uncommon in remote villages of the jungle island.

and polar bears were prevalent.

It was easy to read the blood, hair and drag marks. I moved quickly and came to a spot where the bear and victim again struggled. The man tried to crawl away, but the bear recaptured him. The amount of blood covering the stark white snow was profound, and the fact that the man was still alive at that point was harrowing.

Continuing down toward the ice, I saw the headlight of a snowmobile approach from below me, pulling up where the frozen ocean met the bottom of the snow drifts. It was a member of the search party. When the machine stopped 30 yards below me, I could see the body of the victim engulfed in red snow, and behind that, the glowing eyes of the polar bear. The light of the snowmobile reflected off the base of a snowdrift, providing just enough light to see the bear for the first time.

Running up to the man on the snowmachine, I saw that over half of the victim had been devoured. Though I tried warning the man about the bear nearby, he didn’t respond. It was understandable, for the sight was gruesome.

I kept moving to catch up with the bear. Unsure if my rifle would fire in the frigid conditions, I tried slowing my pulse so I could align the crosshairs of my scope with the flashlight beam. I was relieved when the gun fired, and the 220-grain bullet hit the mark.

search party. I’d first gotten sworn in by the federal government, which granted me permission to kill the bear if it was a threat to me or had killed the victim.

During the initial attack, the bear bit the man about the head, then grabbed him by the throat or head, dragging him on his back, as evidenced by the heel scuff marks between the polar bear’s footprints atop the frozen snow.

Twenty yards in, the man broke free, crawling on hands and knees. Bloodied finger marks and handprints, along with round indentations left by his knees, told the story. Then the polar bear seized the man again.

A short distance down the blood trail, I found where the man squirmed out of his black jacket. The collar was riddled with punctures from the bear’s canines, the inside saturated in frozen blood.

The village of Point Lay sits atop the tundra, nearly 100 yards above the Arctic Ocean. In winter, snow covers the land and the frozen sea. Male polar bears are active all winter, feeding on seals and walrus that haul out on the edges of open leads, where the ocean pack ice splits apart due to currents below. That winter, the lead was close to the village,

Today, that man-eating polar bear is mounted life-size in the science room at Homer High School, which retained the hide on a special grant. If you’re ever in this part of Alaska, stop in and see it.

When hunting man-eaters, your senses are on the highest of highs. Every nerve seems to dangle outside your body. Every sound, smell and sight is so much more accentuated than when hunting game with the goal of putting meat on the table. For me, it’s the pinnacle of all hunting. 

Editor’s note: Scott Haugen is a fulltime writer. Follow his adventures on Instagram and learn more at scotthaugen.com.