Hiker photographs bear just before fatal grizzly attack

(CNN) -- A southern California man killed by a grizzly bear in Alaska's backcountry was shooting photos of the animal that killed him just moments before the attack, a National Park Service official said Sunday.

The bear that killed Richard White, 49, was still with his body when rangers found him in Denali National Park on Saturday, the official said.

The San Diego resident had been backpacking alone for three nights when he was mauled to death by the bear, according to a park service statement.

Grizzly bear kills backpacker in Alaska's Denali National Park

Photographs found in his camera revealed that White was watching the bear for at least eight minutes near a river before the attack.

"The bear was generally unaware that he was there until the last couple of shots, then his attention turned," park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said.

The photographs "are not that demonstrative" and show "nothing graphic, or any showing major signs of aggression," McLaughlin said. "We're not sure what happened after the camera was put down."

State troopers, park rangers and wildlife biologists, using the photos to identify the "large male bear," shot and killed the animal as it was still "defending the kill site along the Toklat River as the recovery team attempted to reach White's remains," the park service said.

A necropsy of the bear Saturday night confirmed it was the animal that killed White, the statement said.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/26/us/alaska-bear-attack/index.html