Claws and canines: injury patterns following European brown bear attacks

In recent years, bear attacks in Slovakia have increased, including two fatal attacks. The first fatality involved a 63-year-old man who was attacked by a brown bear while hiking with his family. He sustained grievous injuries to the left thigh and died at the scene shortly after the attack. In the second case, a 58-year-old man was found dead near a walking trail, and recent bear prints were found nearby. The man sustained various blunt and sharp injuries to the head and right upper extremity, strongly suggesting a bear attack. The cause of death was severance of the cervical spinal cord. Both victims presented with similar topographical and patterned injuries, which were consistent with biting and clawing. Sets of similar penetrating wounds arranged in rectangular patterns were also found on both victims. Differentiating such injuries from homicidal or self-inflicted wounds is of pivotal medico-legal importance. This paper provides a detailed analysis, visualization and assessment of wound morphology following fatal bear attacks.