Abstract

Human encounters with wild animals are of great concern to humans. In nature, humans are usually defenseless against wild animals, however humans do not always take precautions from possible encounters. Wild animals tend to attack mostly sensitive areas of the body, and elderly individuals often fail to defend themselves compared to young people. All of these factors contribute to the increase in the mortality rate associated with these encounters. In forensic practice, deaths due to bear attacks are very rarely seen. In these cases, well-known bear attack pattern and bear-specific tooth and paw marks are observed, facilitating the work of physician who performed the autopsy. In this study, we aimed to discuss a case of a 77-year-old woman who died as a result of bear attack in the light of the existing literature.

Key words: Animal attack, bear attack, anatomy of bears, autopsy.