This is heavy duty, Doc.

Funny a natural solitary death feels so different than a natural death involving one animal ripping another to morsels.

I wonder what was wrong with that bear. It was obviously having trouble before they got there to be 'sleeping' out in the open like that. That's not normal bear behavior.
I wonder if they (the state/rangers) did an autopsy.
I've never seen anything like that in nature.
This makes me really sad, and a bit worried that we might start hearing about BCD (Bear Collapse Disorder-related to CCD in bees). I know up here in N California, we have a serious issue with very low water in our rivers causing warm water, which allows toxic algae to bloom, devastating our salmon (and other river fish) population. I have no idea if that's happening in Alaska too.
I wonder if this is related, either from eating tainted fish or drinking the water. It can kill healthy, well fed dogs within minutes of drinking it, so I'm curious what it's doing to the struggling wildlife that has no other source of water. I've not heard or seen any studies on that.
That's likely just one more part of the disaster that is the California drought. Fingers crossed we get some good rain this winter, if not things here are going to get a bit Thunderdome-y.

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Hopefully this was a ripe old bear out for their last run.

Sadly, they described it as a small, young bear.

missed that. Bummer.

I know this seems entirely 'natural' and it really shouldn't be... but damn that just makes me so sad.

@newtboy where are you from?

Isn't that the bear from all those cigarette commercials??

Much more likely to toxic/neurological rather than 'heart attack'. See how the legs went stiff, if it had fatal heart attach the bloods pressure drops and all tone is gone - like a faint.

Yeah, the total "lockup" of the muscles (even after she hit that patch of rocks too), absolutely rigid, is pretty odd. It was almost akin to a grand mal or other types of seizure that cause the same thing. Maybe this was a life-long issue and they happened to see the very end. I'm guessing that quite possibly that outcropping of rocks was the real "killer" (hit in the head or spinal cord injury; we already know it was strong enough to break the jaw, perhaps it did more than just that).

The part that is a bit more odd is that the rigidity "appeared" to still be there when they got to her. I don't know if a seizure, plus something killing you, can lock you up like that. If not, then like others said it wasn't a very normal death, with something she ate as the most probable issue.

Just guessing though...