The bear found the two wires -- about the thickness of vacuum cords -- by first ripping off a 3-foot high protective plastic box. It appeared that almost instantly when the bear bit into the wire, it was electrocuted. "It didn't thrash much, it was pretty quick," Sinnott said.

Bears like to chew on plastic, said Sinnott, who was not surprised the bruin was curious about the box and its contents. "I don't know what they get out of it, but they are curious and he might have tried to investigate it just because it's rubber or plastic."

The bear bit into 5,000 volts of energy, according to a Chugach Electric Association spokesman Phil Steyer, who said the apparatus did not belong to the company but likely to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, the owner of the land where the bear was found.

Steyer said the company often deals with birds or squirrels that are electrocuted, but in his 19 years on the job, he's never heard of anything close to the size of a brown bear being killed by the wires.

The scene of an adult brown bear electrocution is examined by Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Rick Sinnott, right, and Kincaid Park recreation supervisor Robert Hughes along the park's Sisson Loop Aug.10, 2006. A passing cyclist discovered the scene, just off the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail about 2.3 miles from the park chalet. Officials planned to shut off power and then remove the animal by nightfall.

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