Parks Canada says its officers are and will be closely monitoring a black bear after it killed a dog that jumped out of a car window in Jasper National Park last week. 
 
 “Parks Canada can confirm that a dog did not survive an encounter with a bear last Wednesday evening after escaping from a car which had pulled over on the side of the road to view the bear,” Parks Canada said in a statement issued to Global News on Monday. “After escaping, the dog harassed the bear by approaching and barking at it. 
 
 “The bear responded defensively towards the dog as it would to any other predator and unfortunately the dog did not survive the attack.” 
 
 On Friday, Parks Canada issued a statement on Jasper National Park’s Facebook page in which it confirmed the basic details of the fatal attack “with heavy hearts.” 
 
 “It is clear that this dog was under control until it escaped from the car through an open window,” the post reads. “Our condolences go out to the pet owner involved in this incident.” 
 
 According to Parks Canada, human-wildlife conflict specialists responded after the attack and retrieved the dog. They said the bear did not respond aggressively to either them or the dog’s owners. 
 
 Safety is a top priority for Parks Canada and the agency would like to remind visitors that they share the surrounding habitat with wildlife. 
 
 “Bears near the roadside and highways are common in Jasper National Park at this time of year,” Parks Canada said. “(We remind) visitors and those driving through our special places to practice safe wildlife viewing and to always have your dog on a leash while within the mountain national parks.” 
 
 READ MORE: Dog killed by polar bear on same property where viral video was taken 
 
 Watch below: (From November 2016) David de Meulles, a tour guide for North Star Tours, captured this incredible footage showing a polar bear petting a sled dog affectionately on its head in Churchill, Man. 
 
 Parks Canada said it is illegal to have a dog off-leash in mountainous national parks and warn dogs pose a threat of pursuing or provoking wildlife that can not only endanger dogs, but also present a threat to its owners if it draws a wild animal to them. 
 
 If a park visitor’s pet is attacked by a wild animal, Parks Canada says they should not put themselves at risk by trying to rescue their animal. Instead, they can call Parks Canada’s human-wildlife specialists at 780-852-6155. 
 
 Parks Canada offers the following tips for safely viewing wild animals from a vehicle in its parks: 
 
 -Pull safely out of traffic 
 
 -Remain in your vehicle 
 
 -Move on after a few minutes 
 
 -Keep pets secured when viewing wildlife 
 
 For more information, click here. 

 When a black bear lunged at his dog in Jasper National Park last month, the owner jumped on the wild animal to protect his pet. 
 
 The dog, which had jumped out of an open car window, was killed. 
 
 Steve Malcolm, a human-wildlife conflict specialist for the park, revealed the details of the attack in a Monday morning interview with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. 
 
 "He wasn't expecting the dog to jump out and he ended up just jumping on the bear, trying to wrestle that dog free," Malcolm said. 
 
 "It's an instinctive reaction and one that we don't condone." 
 
 Malcolm said he has investigated two cases of people kicking at cougars to save their dogs, but this is the first time he's heard of anyone trying to wrestle a bear in the park. 
 
 "Really, the fellow is really lucky that he was able to pull that off, but it didn't change the outcome," he said. 
 
 "And certainly our message is: Absolutely never do that." 
 
 After jumping out of the car, the dog approached the bear while barking at it, Malcolm said. The bear responded as it would to any other predator. 
 
 Animal instincts 
 
 The man likely escaped injury due to prey-fixation, Malcolm said. When a bear is attacking, it focuses solely on its potential meal. 
 
 "Their primary focus is to kill and disable that prey species and then they'll go into a bit of a defensive mode to protect themselves," Malcolm said. 
 
 "I think the fellow just caught him in that window where that black bear hadn't completely killed that dog yet and the bear was basically going to focus on the dog first and then go back to its own defence." 
 
 Malcolm said human-wildlife conflict specialists have been monitoring the bear since the attack but it has not acted aggressively toward humans. 
 
 The case is a reminder to keep pets leashed and to never attempt to rescue a pet under attack, Malcolm said. 
 
 Having an off-leash dog is not only illegal in the mountain national parks, but can increase the chances of an aggressive encounter with a bear, elk and other wildlife. 
 
 Some pet owners in Alberta have gone to great lengths to save their animals from wildlife attacks. 
 
 In April 2015, a man escaped with only a few bumps and bruises after fighting off a cougar that attacked his girlfriend's dog on his acreage southwest of Calgary. 
 
 In the December 2016, a Red Deer man made international headlines for punching a cougar at a Tim Hortons parking lot after the wild cat grabbed his pet husky by the neck. 
 
 When bears attack, people's own animal instincts take over, Malcolm said. 
 
 If a park visitor's pet is attacked by a wild animal, they should not put themselves at risk by attempting to intervene. 
 
 "They don't think," he said. "They'll go into a defensive action without thinking, because every one of them that has done it thinks, after the fact, 'I can't believe I just did that.' "
– "Our message is: Absolutely never do that." That's what Canada's Jasper National Park is trying to communicate loud and clear. The "that" it's referring to is a May 16 incident in which a man jumped onto a black bear in an attempt to rescue his dog, which had spontaneously jumped from an open car window and barked at the bear, which then attacked it. The dog didn't make it. The man managed to emerge unscathed, with the park's human-wildlife conflict specialist Steve Malcolm suggesting to the CBC that "prey-fixation" was his saving grace. "I think the fellow just caught him in that window where that black bear hadn't completely killed that dog yet and the bear was basically going to focus on the dog first and then go back to its own defense," says Malcolm, who says it's the first such case of its kind he can recall, though there have been two incidents where parkgoers went after cougars to try to save their dogs. GlobalNews reports the car had pulled over specifically to observe the bear, and the park wrote on Facebook that "it is clear that this dog was under control until it escaped from the car through an open window. This is a sad reminder that all pets should be kept under control and on-leash at all times." (A week after starting her dream job, a bear attacked.)