Mother and daughter killed in grizzly bear attack, Canadian authorities confirm

Jenny Balcarras, an art therapist, and her daughter Selah Reed were reported missing by relatives over the weekend. Photograph: GoFundmeView image in fullscreenJenny Balcarras, an art therapist, and her daughter Selah Reed were reported missing by relatives over the weekend.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleSearch teams in Canada have discovered the body of a 20-year-old woman and confirmed that both she and her mother were killed in an attack that conservation officers now believe could have involved multiple grizzly bears.

Tarde na terça-feira, agentes de conservação na Colúmbia Britânica disseram que as duas mulheres, que foram relatadas como desaparecidas no fim de semana, foram localizadas perto de um trilho a curta distância de sua casa.

The discovery has shaken a community where, earlier in the year, a grizzly attacked a group of schoolchildren and their teachers.

Jenny Balcarras, an art therapist, and her daughter Selah Reed were reported missing by relatives over the weekend. A family member posted on Facebook about them, later updating it after the conservation service announced the suspected attack to indicate that their vehicle had been found at a trailhead near Bella Coola, British Columbia.

Balcarras’s remains were found first and Reed was located a day later.

Uma arrecadação de fundos para Balcarras, iniciada pela família dela, lamentou uma mulher que recentemente se mudou para Bella Coola, uma comunidade de aproximadamente 2,100 pessoas, em busca de um novo emprego e “para começar um novo capítulo” de sua vida.

She leaves behind three adult children and a grandchild.

The family also mourned 20-year-old Selah, who had her “whole life ahead of her” before the attack.

Both Balcarras and Reed had lived in communities in remote and rugged parts of the province, as well as time in Alaska.

The suspected attack happened at the Snooka West trail area, about 8km (5 miles) east of Bella Coola, on the province’s central coast.

Bella Coola, que fica no final de um fiorde ao longo da costa central da província, é uma localização remota, e fontes abundantes de alimento fazem com que ursos grizzly sejam uma visão comum na região, que é informalmente conhecida como a floresta tropical do Grande Urso.

Grizzly attacks in the province are exceedingly rare, but last November, 11 people, some as young as nine years old, were injured when a grizzly emerged from the forest near 4 Mile, a Nuxalk community, and attacked a school group on a lunch break alongside a walking trail.

Despite an extensive search, the bear was never located.

Samuel Schooner, eleito chefe da Nuxalk Nation, disse na terça-feira: “Nossos pensamentos estão com a família da vítima enquanto a família toma conhecimento deste trágico evento.” Schooner disse que uma operação de captura para encontrar o urso estava em andamento e pediu à imprensa que se abstenha de contatar membros da comunidade.

The province’s premier-designate, Lorne Doerkson, called the news “heartbreaking” and said he was thinking of the victims’ family and the Nuxalk Nation.

Em números

• The suspected attack happened at the Snooka West trail area, about 8km (5 miles) east of Bella Coola, on the province’s