Harrowing final moments of man mauled to death by polar bear as friends refused to leave body

Shocking images have emerged as a man is mauled to death by a pack of in front of his friends. The harrowing final moments of Darryl Kaunak have been told by his friends who watched as he was eaten alive by a female polar bear while trying to protect her cubs.

Part of the Nanavut hunters, Kaunak and his friends were having a tea break when the pack of ferocious approached their camp. Leo Ijjangiaq, Laurent Junior Uttak and Darryl Kaunak had left Naujaat, a community of about , by boat two days earlier to hunt caribou and narwhal.

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In an interview with CBC News, Ijjangiaq recalled: "I ran out of the tent. I fired my rifle in the air to scare the bear away." He shared how the mother bear bit into Uttak's head and then chased down Kaunak, who was running away, and mauled him to death. Ijjangiaq said he shot the bear with his rifle, but it jammed.

The hunter then got another rifle and managed to shoot and kill the animal, and shot the cub as well but it was too late for Kaunak. His friends tried to give him medical help, but realised he was dead so Ijjangiaq and Uttak covered his remains in a tarp.

They were then stranded at Lyon Inlet when their boat experienced mechanical difficulties and ice blew in, preventing a return to open water. However it started to get dangerous for the remaining hunters as they huddled with their friends body as they awaited being rescued - while several other bears circled their camp.

Ijjangiaq continued: "More bears approached us. I told my friend that I will take all criminal responsibility for every bear that we kill," as he said he killed the bears surrounding them.

Ijjangiaq and Uttak sheltered in the cab of their boat until they were after they were spotted by a search helicopter from the icebreaker CCGS Louis St-Laurent. They refused to leave Kaunak's remains behind as it took three men to carry the body into the helicopter.

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In the end the four polar bears were killed and Kaunak's death is the second fatal polar bear attack in Nunavut. The first was in the summer of 2018 after Aaron Gibbons of Arviat lost his life on when he heroically protected his family from a polar bear's attack. He was unarmed at the time.

A video of the hunter's story has resurfaced on , but it's garnered a mixed response from viewers. One YouTube user commented: "So sad because the bear didn't even know they were there. She was protecting her cub from what she saw as a threat. And the cub was looking for protection. Wrong place, wrong time for them all."

While another penned: "RIP Daryll. Those men did what they had to do to survive. All the bear lovers...would you just give yourself to the bears? After seeing what they did to your friend?"

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