A Mansfield hunting last weekend at a state park in Alaska was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear, according to reports.
The Mansfield Police Department confirmed that Austin Pfeiffer, 22, died in the attack Sunday in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the Mansfield News-Journal reports. Pfeiffer was just two days short of his birthday when he was killed, the News-Journal reports.
Pfeiffer was at the park with two other Ohio men hunting for moose. The Richland Source reports Pfeiffer was attacked by the bear while he was field-dressing a moose he had just killed.
According to ABC News, the National Parks Service says it is first-known bear mauling fatality at Wrangell-St. Elias since it was established as a park in 1980. The park in southeast Alaska covers 13.2 million acres and is the same size as Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Switzerland combined, ABC News reports.
It is the largest of the U.S. national parks and has nine of the 16 highest peaks in the nation.
The Source reports Pfeiffer was married with no children.
