“How do you distinguish between the two, when the victim/s did not survive?”
Predator:
an animal that naturally preys on others.
“wolves are major predators of rodents”
I think that’s the confusion here I’m talking about a hunting methodology and your talking about attacks on human beings exclusively.
If you’re up in the ice and a polar bear gets your sniff you are the target, they will target/hunt and they will ambush/attack.
If you’re down south in Alaska and a grizzly bear gets your scent it just might leave you alone or check you out or you might have pressured the bear into a response, or come between cubs and the sow band then they’ll take action but not necessarily. They are not hunting you they want the invasive presence to back off. Those varieties are opportunistic... they’ll eat a berry bush, or raid a trash can.
I spent a lot of time in Alaska, I lived on Kodiak Island when I was spending time in the Coast Guard, did a lot of fishing, bears would walk up take your fish and you let him have them but they wouldn’t attack humans specifically unless they were pressured.
But some grizzly/brown bears still stalk and kill and eat humans.
There are several documented cases.
Hunting is opportunistic, generally.
The vast majority of bears, of all species do not hunt humans. Polar bears, generally do not hunt humans because they are uncertain of humans as prey. They are very dangerous, because they may not be afraid of humans, and can easily decide humans are worth predating on.
The motivation of grizzly bears which kill humans in surprise attacks or of sows with cubs, is not obvious or certain.
Hererro gave his opinion of what he thinks the bears are thinking, but it is just his opinion. The only reason he makes the claim the surprise and sow with cubs attacks are not predatory is because they do not usually eat the human immediately. Leave the body there for a few days, and the bears tend to eat the humans.
Bears are surplus killers. They will kill things, just to kill things. If they are not hungry now, they are likely to come back later to feed.