Fully investigate Yukon grizzly deaths , expert says

WHITEHORSE — A grizzly bear expert says fatal attacks such as the one on a woman and her baby in Yukon are unusual and it’s important to have a thorough investigation into what happened.

The Yukon Coroner’s Service said Valerie Theoret, who was 37, and her 10-month-old baby Adele Roesholt died Monday in the Einarson Lake area near the Northwest Territories boundary.

A trapper, Gjermund Roesholt, said he shot the bear dead before finding the bodies of his wife and baby just outside the cabin.

Chris Servheen, who was the grizzly bear recovery co-ordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 35 years, said a fatal grizzly bear attack is unusual.

“It would be valuable to try to understand why it happened, if that can be determined through a careful re-creation of the events,” said Servheen, who has investigated the last eight fatal grizzly bear attacks in the United States.