A walk in the Polish woods ended in a fatal encounter with one of the country’s few brown bears. Authorities say a 58-year-old woman was killed in a forest near the village of Plonna in southeast Poland after apparently stepping on a bear she mistook for a patch of wet ground while collecting deer antlers with her 27-year-old son, the Telegraph reports. Family members told local media they believe the animal had been lying down and was startled into attacking. Polish outlets report the woman was on the phone with her son, who had briefly stepped away, when she screamed “bear! bear!” before the call dropped.
He called emergency services when he returned and found her injured, but by the time rescuers arrived, she was dead from severe head wounds and cuts. The rough terrain and limited phone reception made it difficult for emergency services to reach the site, the BBC reports. A police spokesperson said there is no indication of any cause of death other than the bear mauling. The woman’s other son told Polish outlet TVN24: “She must have stepped on it. When a bear lies down, it’s like a mound of dark earth. Once it hits, there’s no escape.”
Poland has only about 100 brown bears, mostly in the southeastern Bieszczady region, and deadly attacks are rare, with the last reported in 2014, per the Telegraph. “At this time of year, bears that have awakened from their winter sleep come to places like this, close to human homes, in search of food,” a local forestry official told Polish outlet Onet. “This was an unexpected encounter for both the bear and the human.”