Friday, March 12, 2010

Villagers unnerved by fearless wolves after teacher's death

Villagers in Chignik Lake were on patrol Wednesday, hunting for wolves they blame in the death of a 32-year-old schoolteacher while she was jogging on an isolated road this week. Tuesday night and again Wednesday morning, villagers said, an armed group of men was out roaming on snowmachines in search of tracks left by wolves, which people say have been coming too close to town lately. "We approached them last night, but we ended up losing them," said Fred Shangin, 32, who is among the hunters. "They were right by the village again. They started running, we started chasing them but they came up to a creek we couldn't get across." Villagers say people are on edge, concerned with the boldness of wolves in the wake of Berner's death. Four people riding snowmachines along the road came across her body about 6:30 p.m. Monday. Gregory Kalmakoff, 23, said by phone Wednesday he and the others had been out riding at Portage Bay and were on their way back. "There was a blood spot on the road," he said. "I turned around, looked and there was drag marks going down a little hill." There were wolf tracks in the new snow and footprints left by a person, he said. It appeared something had been dragged off the road, said Kalmakoff's cousin, 24-year-old Jacob Kalmakoff, who troopers say was among those who discovered the body. "We seen her gloves on the road where she was running," Kalmakoff said. "She didn't get away too far from them; they took her down pretty fast. You could see a blood trail of her body getting drug down the hill." "After the wolves came back, they took her up to the village," he said. "The wolves weren't scared of nothing. They were just circling them down there, trying to look for an opportunity to get back in there." Alaska State Troopers say there was predation on the body but they haven't concluded whether it was before or after death. Investigators told Berner's family in Pennsylvania that she had been killed in an animal attack, possibly by wolves...read more

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