Additional information is being released in connection with a fatal bear attack which happened near Yellowstone Park on Wednesday morning.

State wildlife officials say that two people were injured and one person was killed in separate bear attacks that occurred at the Soda Butte Campground.

Park County Sheriff’s Department dispatch records show that a Park County Sheriff’s deputy and a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game warden were dispatched to the area at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and Investigators found a man dead at the campground about two hours later.

Two other people, a male and a female, were reportedly bitten and later treated at a hospital in Cody, Wyoming. The identities of the victims have not been released.

FWP officials, in cooperation with the Gallatin National Forest, the National Park Service and the Park County Sherriff’s Office spent much of the day at the site collecting forensic evidence of the attacks.

Officials from the agencies plan to hold a community meeting at the Cooke City Chamber of Commerce on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the incident.

“The camp sites are being combed for evidence,” said FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim “We’re not certain if it was one bear or more than one, and we haven’t determined if it was a grizzly or black bear. We’ve extracted DNA samples from evidence found on site. This will help us identify the bear or bears involved, once captured.”

Officials say that tents were ripped or damaged during the attacks but no food was found in the tent of the dead man or in the tents of the two injured victims. “Everyone appeared to have followed all food storage regulations,” Aasheim said.

The Soda Butte Campground, the nearby Chief Joseph and Colter campgrounds, also in the Gallatin National Forest, are closed.

“This is not typical bear behavior. It’s odd. It’s not normal,” Aasheim said.

FWP officials have set a number of traps in anticipation of the animal’s return on Wednesday night.

via KPAX – Missoula, Montana – News, Weather, Sports – - KPAX Home Missoula News, Missoula Weather, Missoula Sports, Montana News, Montana Weather, Montana Sports | Separate bear attacks blamed for fatality, injuries.

Authorities continue piecing together details about an overnight bear attack near Cooke City that killed one person and injured two others.

MT FWP officials say that it appears the victims were attacked separately and were not camped in the same location of the Soda Butte Campground.

The attacks are believed to have occurred sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m., and authorities believe that only one bear is responsible for the attacks.

Aasheim says the man who died had been dragged from his tent and was found at the western edge of the campground.

A woman suffered severe lacerations from bites on her arms, while another man was bitten on his calf. Both are being treated for their injures at a Cody, Wyoming hospital. Their injuries are not life threatening. Officials say the man was able to drive himself to Cody, while the woman was transported by ambulance.

Authorities have not yet released the names of the people involved.

Wildlife officials are investigating a deadly bear attack in the Cooke City area that left one man dead and two people injured.

The incident happened at the Soda Butte Campground late Tuesday night or into early Wednesday morning.

The name of the man who was killed has not yet been released.

Ron Aasheim of MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks says that another man was bitten on the leg and taken to a hospital in Cody, Wyoming, and a woman suffered injuries to her arms. Their conditions are not yet known.

FWP spokeswoman Andrea Jones has confirmed one attack and says there might have been multiple attacks; FWP officials and the Park County Sheriff’s Office are at the site of the attack and investigating what happened.

A Cooke City resident who chose to remain anonymous informed Montana’s News Station early Wednesday morning that there were two separate attacks, both causing severe injuries.  The source says there may have been a third attack.

We will have more information as it becomes available.

via KXLH | Helena, Montana – News, Weather, Sports | UPDATED: Bear attack kills one, injures two at Cooke City campground.

Two men camping in the woods at the west end of Sproat Lake near Port Alberni have suffered extensive wounds after being attacked by a bear, Port Alberni RCMP said Wednesday.

A 57-year-old man sleeping in a lean-to shelter was attacked first, and his 47-year-old friend sleeping in a tent nearby was able to fight off the bear, police said in a press release.

The older man sustained injury to his skull and has been transported to Nanaimo for surgery, while both men received extensive claw mark wounds in the attack, police said. It is unknown what, if anything, provoked the attack, police said.

“Police and conservation want to remind people visiting the back country to be extra vigilant in protecting themselves and their camp from wildlife encounters,” said Sgt. Kevin Murray of the Port Alberni RCMP in the release.

via Bear attacks men on Vancouver Island.

Depending on where you are in the Rockies this year, the annual summer bear season could mean black-bear sightings in your front yard or a near-death experience while looking through the jaws of a hungry bear.

Already, the list of bear attacks across the Rockies this summer is beginning to mount.

On Saturday morning, a bear attacked a homeless man sleeping in Durango near the Animas River. The man survived, but the bear didn’t after Colorado Division of Wildlife officials turned their guns on it after the attack. A necropsy of the bear’s carcass was completed at CSU.

Last Thursday, a bear broke into a home in Bailey, southwest of Denver, biting a man.

Other bears have been sighted plundering porches and backyards in Livermore and Rist Canyon.

In the past month, bears have turned outright hostile in New Mexico, where they’ve developed an affinity for tents and a taste for the people sleeping in them.

“They’re coming down and acting kind of aggressive right now,” said Dan Williams, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

New Mexico wildlife officials killed a bear at the end of June after it jumped on a tent and took a swipe at the man sleeping in it at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, a 137,000-acre camping and backpacking ranch just south of the Colorado state line west of Raton.

There were two more incidents there: The same day, another bear was found with a goat in its mouth, and a Philmont staffer killed it. On Wednesday, a bear bit a 14-year-old Boy Scout through his tent, leaving a deep gash in his head.

“It kind of peeled back the scalp there,” Williams said.

Both campers who were attacked were carefully following strict bear-safety protocols in place at Philmont, he said.

Those incidents followed another in June when a bear swatted a man tent-camping in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque.

But all the ursine nastiness in some parts of the West doesn’t mean there’s anything unusual going on this year, particularly in Colorado and Wyoming.

Bear activity is quite normal throughout Colorado, DOW spokesman Tyler Baskfield said.

The bears’ habitat is normal and healthy, he said, and there is no sign of increased bear sightings or attacks in any localized area, he said.

“We haven’t noticed anything that is different than we’ve seen in years when there’s decent, natural food,” said Ken Wilson, a professor of wildlife and conservation biology at Colorado State University.

“A bear has been into some trash cans in Rist Canyon,” he said. “One bear can decide it’s going to get into something, (but) it’s not all of them.”

Few bears have been seen at all in southern Wyoming, where wildlife officials consider black-bear habitat and natural food supply excellent, said Al Langston, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.

In New Mexico, dry weather hurt the bears’ food supply and dried out the forbs and grass that usually get black bears through the spring.

The lack of food there is so dire that this year’s number of bear attacks hasn’t been seen in New Mexico for almost a decade, Williams said.

There are plenty of things homeowners and backcountry adventurers can do to keep bears away.

For people camping in the mountains, store food in bear-resistant containers away from your sleeping area, Wilson said.

The best way to keep plundering bears away from homes is to keep birdseed, trash and other potential food sources inside where bears can’t have easy access to them, Baskfield said.

“There’s no reason to feed birds this time of year” because natural bird food is plentiful, he said.

And, he warned city dwellers, just because you might live in Fort Collins doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your home bear resistant.

“We get bears who wander into Fort Collins on a regular basis,” he said.

via List of bear attacks this summer grows | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan.

By the luck of the draw, or rather the lack thereof, a fisherman survived an attack by a grizzly bear last weekend.

Conditions conspired against two brothers out fishing as they hiked along the south fork of Fish Creek near Union Pass last Saturday, said Mark Gocke, Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman. For one, they were hiking up-wind, so their scent was trailing behind them. When they saw bear tracks on the trail, the men started making noise to alert any bears that might be around.  But the sound of the rushing river drowned their noise, and all of sudden there was a startled grizzly in the middle of the trail.

“It was a classic surprise [bear] encounter,” Gocke said.

The bear charged one of the men, who tried to pull a can of bear spray from his pants, but everything happened so quickly he was unable to use it. The bear knocked him down and bit him on the inside of the thigh. The bear also bit into the can of bear spray, which started spraying and scared the animal off. The man escaped the encounter with a couple of puncture wounds on his leg. He was treated and released from the Dubois Clinic the same day.

Gocke noted that reports of bear activity appear to be proliferating in southeastern Bridger-Teton National Forest and into Shoshone National Forest. Bears have been troubling livestock and getting into trash in the area. A troublesome bear was removed from Yellowstone National Park and sent to a zoo last week after rummaging through some tents and gnawing on a generator.

Meanwhile, the bears seem to be steering clear of Jackson, according to Gocke. He said that there were a number of bear sightings in and around town a month ago, but since then they’ve been absent. Gocke attributes the bears’ absence to the use of bear-resistant garbage bins and other bear deterrent efforts.

via Planet News Article, Jackson Hole Wy | Fisherman escapes grizz attack | 7/14/2010.

DURANGO, Colo. – Colorado Division of Wildlife officers shot and killed a bear early Saturday morning that bit a man near the Animas River in Durango.

The victim said he was sleeping outside when he was bitten by a bear through his blanket at about 2:30 a.m.

He received a minor wound during the attack and was able to escape the bear by entering into a nearby building.

Officers from the DOW and the U.S. Department of Agriculture responded immediately with tracking dogs, which led officers directly to a male bear approximately three blocks from where the incident took place.

DOW officers shot and killed the animal.

The bear carcass was identified by several people who witnessed the incident as the bear that bit the man.

“A bear that bites a person – or loses its fear of people may be a serious threat to public safety,” said Patt Dorsey, area wildlife manager for the DOW in Durango.

“In the interest of public safety, we chose to remove this animal as quickly as possible.”

The carcass of the bear underwent a necropsy at Colorado State University. The stomach contents of the bear showed that the bear was using human-provided food sources.

A package of hamburger and an ice cream-container were found in the bear’s stomach.

People living in or visiting bear country are urged to eliminate access to all food sources.

The DOW says most bears sighted in residential areas within bear habitat do not cause damage. If a bear does not find food, it usually moves on.

via Bear that bit man sleeping outside killed – KDVR.

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) ― Wildlife agents shot and killed a bear Saturday that bit a Durango man as he slept in his backyard.

Authorities say the man wasn’t seriously hurt and fled from the animal by going indoors.

But Colorado Division of Wildlife responded to the attack and tracking dogs led them to the bear that was only about 300 yards away.

DOW wildlife manager Patt Dorsey says the agents then shot and killed the animal.

Dorsey says bears that attack people or lose their fear of them are a serious threat to public safety.

via Wildlife Officers Kill Bear That Bit Durango Man – cbs4denver.com.

A 51-year-old Bailey man suffered bite wounds from a bear inside his home early Thursday morning.

The man discovered the bear in his basement and approached it in hopes of getting the animal to leave. The 320-pound, male bear was later shot and killed.

According to wildlife officers, the family heard sounds in their kitchen shortly after midnight on Thursday morning and quickly determined that a bear had entered the home. The man attempted to monitor the bear’s whereabouts and was bitten as the bear tried to get past him.

A Division of Wildlife officer, responding alongside deputies from the Park County Sheriff’s Office, located the bear outside the home and killed it.

“The instructions we give our wildlife officers are clear: Public safety is our first priority,” said Reid DeWalt, area wildlife manager. “Bears that enter homes are a threat to public safety. When we’re dealing with aggressive or habituated wildlife, people come first.”

The victim was taken to Swedish Medical Center in Littleton and released Thursday morning.

Most conflicts between people and bears involve some sort of food source. In this case, wildlife officers said there was an open door to a garage containing accessible trash and a refrigerator. In addition, officers reported that the door from the garage into the home appeared not to be latching correctly. Bears can smell food from miles away, be it birdseed, pet food, a greasy grill grate or accessible refuse. Bears that become habituated to people will seek out such food sources.

Most bears sighted in residential areas within bear habitat do not cause any damage. If a bear doesn’t find abundant food, it will move on. In most cases, bears avoid confrontations with people.

Aggressive bear attacks are rare, but encounters like the one in Bailey have increased as Colorado’s population grows. The bear population has not increased, but the number of people living, working and recreating in bear country has.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife recommends the following measures to avoid harmful wildlife interactions:

• If a wild animal enters your home, leave and call for help. Animals that feel cornered or threatened are a danger to humans and pets.

• Make your property safe by keeping garbage out of reach and smell of bears. Use bear-proof trash containers. Be sure garbage cans are emptied regularly. To reduce residual odor, periodically clean garbage cans with hot water and chlorine bleach, or by burning trash residue in metal cans. Store trash in a bear-proof enclosure. Contact the Division of Wildlife for designs.

• Lock all ground-level windows and doors. Bears are smart — when they learn that homes contain food, they may try to enter.

• If you have pets, do not store their food outside or feed them outside. Clean your grill of grease and store inside. Hang bird seed, suet and hummingbird feeders on a wire between trees instead of on your deck or porch. Bring all bird feeders in at night. Do not put fruit, melon rinds and other tasty items in mulch or compost piles.

via Bear injures man in Park County | SummitDaily.com.

NBC — A Colorado man was almost killed when a 320-pound bear snuck in to his house and attacked him. Jack Hansell has the photo to prove it.

In a small town like Bailey, big news tends to travel fast, especially when the story is as bizarre as Jack Hansell’s.

Around 10:30 Wednesday night, Jack’s son heard something moseying around in the kitchen. Then he saw it.

Jack says “so he starts yelling, ‘there’s a bear, there’s a bear in the house!’”

That bear made its way downstairs to the basement. Jack followed after him. Jack hoped he’d get a chance to open the basement door so the bear could run out. But he didn’t.

Jack says “he charged me. Bit me in the lower leg and scratched me in the other leg and then knocked me over.”

Jack had so much adrenaline rushing through him, he didn’t feel the bite at all. So he started whacking the bear with a bat.

The bear ran up the stairs and climbed up in to Jack’s loft.

At this point, police and members of the Division of Wildlife were already on their way.

Jack says “unfortunately the bear tried climbing out of an upper story window and then police and DOW had to take care of him at that point.”

Jack suffered a few injuries and the bear was put down. The Division of Wildlife and Jack say this incident could have been prevented.

Jack says “make sure the garage door is shut every night. I had forgot to shut it last night.”

via Jack Hansell survives bear attack in his Colorado home | ksdk.com | St. Louis, MO.

WEST MILFORD — The female bear hunted by New Jersey wildlife officials since it attacked a West Milford man and his dog on June 24 in Norvin Green State Park was trapped and euthanized Thursday night near where the incident occurred, the state Department of Environmental Protection said today.

The 188-pound, female bruin was caught at about 4:45 p.m. near a West Milford home where it had been causing new problems, said DEP spokesman Lawrence Ragonese, explaining the bear had just ripped into a chicken coop at the house before it ran into the baited, culvert trap set up by wildlife officials days earlier. The bear had three, six-month-old cubs which authorities said should be able to survive on their own.

“We had two previous aggressive incidents with this bear, and when it was caught it was being aggressive again. It was euthanized,” Ragonese said, adding that ten aggressive bears have been put down by wildlife officials and police this year.

The hiker was knocked down, but not seriously injured in the June 24 incident, and his dog is recovering from its wounds. The attack prompted a portion of the park to be closed and the postponement of a local fireworks display as authorities searched for the bruin.

via Bear who attacked West Milford hiker is captured, euthanized | NJ.com.

WEST MILFORD — The female bear hunted by New Jersey wildlife officials since it attacked a West Milford man and his dog on June 24 in Norvin Green State Park was trapped and euthanized Thursday night near where the incident occurred, the state Department of Environmental Protection said today.

The 188-pound, female bruin was caught at about 4:45 p.m. near a West Milford home where it had been causing new problems, said DEP spokesman Lawrence Ragonese, explaining the bear had just ripped into a chicken coop at the house before it ran into the baited, culvert trap set up by wildlife officials days earlier. The bear had three, six-month-old cubs which authorities said should be able to survive on their own.

“We had two previous aggressive incidents with this bear, and when it was caught it was being aggressive again. It was euthanized,” Ragonese said, adding that ten aggressive bears have been put down by wildlife officials and police this year.

The hiker was knocked down, but not seriously injured in the June 24 incident, and his dog is recovering from its wounds. The attack prompted a portion of the park to be closed and the postponement of a local fireworks display as authorities searched for the bruin.

via Bear who attacked West Milford hiker is captured, euthanized | NJ.com.

ELDORADO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif.—State wildlife officials say a bear that attacked a man at a campground in Eldorado National Forest has been shot and killed by wardens.

A spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game says after dogs tracked the bear, wardens shot it around 6:15 p.m. Friday.

The animal, described as a 1-year-old black bear, was identified by its paw print. It was located about a a quarter-mile from where it slashed a man’s face at a campground near Union Valley Reservoir around 2 a.m. Friday.

Fish and Game spokeswoman Kirsten Macintyre says the man, who was armed with a .45-caliber pistol, scared the bear off by firing a shot.

The man, who has not been named, required 26 stitches after the attack.

The campground where the attack took place is in a remote area about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento.

via Game wardens kill bear that attacked camper – San Jose Mercury News.

Red River Gorge, closed since Sunday after a black bear attacked a hiker along the Pinch-Em Tight Trail, will reopen Friday morning, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The Natural Bridge State Resort Park also will reopen its hiking trails Friday morning. The lodge, sky lift and bridge there had remained open.

Frank R. Beum, supervisor of the Daniel Boone National Forest, also has issued an order prohibiting any open food storage by visitors to the gorge area.

The order is similar to one already in place in the forest’s Stearns District at the southern end, he said. It applies to all forest lands north of Natural Bridge State Resort Park to U.S. Highway 460 in Powell, Menifee and Wolfe counties.

Beum said he decided to re-open the gorge after officials with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, who are still searching for the bear, said it was last seen Thursday south of Beattyville in Lee County, at least 17 miles from the attack site and outside of Red River Gorge.

“We want our visitors to be aware that black bears have returned to Kentucky, and we want them to know what to do in case they happen upon a bear,” he said. “Forest visitors can help prevent bears from becoming a nuisance by not feeding them or allowing them access to food or garbage.”

Red River Gorge campers must store food, including pet food, in a bear-resistant container, inside their vehicle or in an enclosed hard-body trailer, officials said. Backcountry campers must suspend food and garbage at least 10 feet off the ground and four feet away from any tree or pole.

All leftover food and trash must be placed in bear-resistant trash receptacles provided by the Forest Service. Burning or burying food trash also is banned.

via Red River Gorge to reopen after bear attack; new food rules instituted | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – Montana wildlife officials say a Washington man was injured by a black bear that bit through his tent at a primitive campsite in the Lolo National Forest in western Montana.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens say Rob Holmes of Ellensburg, Wash., was awakened at about 4:30 a.m. Monday when he felt an animal bite his ear lobe. It took 21 stitches to close the wound.

Warden Capt. Jeff Darrah says it appears the bear was drawn into the area by food and other attractants that were left at a nearby camp site.

The U.S. Forest Service campground southwest of St. Regis will be closed while officials try to capture the bear. FWP Regional Supervisor Mack Long says if they can find the bear they’ll euthanize it because it has become habituated to human food.

via Daily Record-News – Ellensburg man survives bear attack in Montana.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – Montana wildlife officials say a Washington man was injured by a black bear that bit through his tent at a primitive campsite in the Lolo National Forest in western Montana.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens say Rob Holmes of Ellensburg, Wash., was awakened at about 4:30 a.m. Monday when he felt an animal bite his ear lobe. It took 21 stitches to close the wound.

Warden Capt. Jeff Darrah says it appears the bear was drawn into the area by food and other attractants that were left at a nearby camp site.

The U.S. Forest Service campground southwest of St. Regis will be closed while officials try to capture the bear. FWP Regional Supervisor Mack Long says if they can find the bear they’ll euthanize it because it has become habituated to human food.

via Daily Record-News – Ellensburg man survives bear attack in Montana.

(WHAS11) -  Tim Scott, the hiker that survived a black bear attack in Red River Gorge, sits down with WHAS11’s Claudia Coffey for his first television interview.

He allowed WHAS11 to come to his Springfield, Kentucky home where he explained how he escaped from the death grip of a black bear. He says the bear followed him along a trail in Red River Gorge, threw him 4 feet, then started chewing on his legs. Finally another hiker came to his aid.

He tells his account of what he thinking and how he tried to escape exclusively to WHAS11.

Scott survived but has 50 to 60 stitches on both legs. His story of survival in his own words, tonight at 5 and 6 p.m. on WHAS11 News and WHAS11.com.

The bear is still on the loose, and some 40,000 acres of campgrounds and trails are closed until the bear is caught.

via Black Bear attack victim shares his survival story

A Perry County woman suffered bites and scratches from a black bear Tuesday, the first such attack in the state in about a year.

The attack occurred about 6:15 a.m. as the woman walked her Australian sheep dog in a wooded area near her home on East Newport Road in Oliver Twp.

The woman was treated at a hospital for the bites and scratches to her back, Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said.

Her dog, which ran off when it spotted the bear, was uninjured, officials said.

George Schaefer, a neighbor, said bears live in the heavily wooded area and sightings have become a fairly regular occurrence.

Black bears have also been sighted or trapped recently in North Annville and West Cornwall townships in Lebanon County, Upper Allen Twp., Camp Hill and along the Conodoguinet Creek in Cumberland County, and Derry and Middle Paxton townships in Dauphin County.

Marcus Schneck, an outdoor writer for The Patriot-News, said the last bear attack he was aware of occurred about this time last year in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Bushkill, Pike County. “These sort of attacks are definitely rare,” he said.

In September, a woman was mauled to death by her pet black bear while she was cleaning its cage in the Pocono Mountains about 20 miles north of Allentown. The woman’s husband had permits allowing him to keep, sell and display exotic animals.

The bear in the Perry County incident, whose age, sex and size were unknown, was at large Tuesday evening.

Game Commission officers were setting a trap for it, Feaser said.

via Black bear attacks woman walking her dog in woods – PennLive.com.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) ― The daughter of a hiker killed by a grizzly bear shortly after the animal awoke from tranquilizers says researchers may have taken down signs warning passers-by of their work near Yellowstone National Park.

A 430-pound grizzly bear killed Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., on June 17. Earlier that day, two members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which studies the animals in Yellowstone, had examined the bear after it was caught in a baited snare.

Mara Domingue, of Ventress, La., said her father had seen a sign days before the attack warning people about the research. But the Park County sheriff’s deputy who recovered Evert’s body reported seeing no signs in the area, Sheriff Scott Steward said.

Domingue said she believes researchers removed the signs as they left, leading her father to believe there was no longer any danger. Except for an area a couple hundred yards off the trail, no other places were marked with warning signs and the trail remained open, she said.

Evert was attacked by the bear not long after it woke from tranquilizers. He was neither armed nor carrying bear spray, the sheriff’s office said.

Evert, a botanist, often went hiking in the forest south of the cabin, typically following a trail a mile or two up Kitty Creek before bushwhacking to a ridgetop overlooking the cabin he owned with his wife, Domingue said.

“I’ve been on every single mountain in that whole drainage with my father. We’ve encountered bears many, many, many, many, many times,” she said. “We’ve never had any incidents with bears, because none of the bears have been harassed, or baited or snared.”

Grizzly team leader Chuck Schwartz, with the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman, Mont., declined to comment on the mauling circumstances, saying they will be investigated. Federal wildlife authorities outside the team will conduct the investigation, he said.

Team policy requires grizzly researchers to tape warning signs to trees, Schwartz said.

“We have a printed sign that essentially warns people that there is grizzly bear trapping in the area. That sign basically says the area behind the sign is closed,” he said Tuesday.

The signs are marked with the dates during which the area remains closed, he said.

Domingue said signs should have been posted at the trailhead and cabin owners in the area notified.

“Nobody was informed what the heck was going on up there,” she said.

The nearby Crossed Sabres Guest Ranch was aware of the work, said Linda McCoy, manager of the dude ranch across U.S. 14-16-20 from the Evert cabin.

“We were notified that they were snaring bears in two areas that they used. They asked us to quit using one of the trails for two weeks, which we did,” she said.

The ranch has since resumed pack trips up the trail.

Two days after the attack, trackers following a signal from a radio collar on the grizzly shot the bear from a helicopter. DNA tests confirmed the bear killed was the grizzly that attacked Evert.

McCoy said she has had to field question from people who’ve booked visits to the dude ranch and heard about the attack.

“It was an accident, and we don’t anticipate future problems,” she said.

via Family Of Man Killed By Bear Says Warnings Removed – cbs4denver.com.

What to do if you encounter a bear:

Black bears are not naturally aggressive, but they are strong, powerful animals. A bear intent on getting a meal can easily injure someone who gets in its way. Every year bears that have become too comfortable around people have to be destroyed. Black bears are highly intelligent. Wild black bears seldom attack unless they feel threatened, cornered or are provoked.

If you surprise a bear on a trail:

• Stand still, stay calm and let the bear identify you and leave. Talk in a normal tone of voice. Be sure the bear has an escape route.

• Never run or climb a tree.

• If you see cubs, their mother is usually close by. Leave the area immediately.

If the bear doesn’t leave:

• A bear standing up is just trying to identify what you are by getting a better look and smell.

• Wave your arms slowly overhead and talk calmly. If the bear huffs, pops it jaws or stomps a paw, it wants you to give it space.

• Step off the trail to the downhill side, keep looking at the bear and slowly back away until the bear is out of sight.

If the bear approaches:

• A bear knowingly approaching a person could be a food-conditioned bear looking for a handout or, very rarely, an aggressive bear. Stand your ground. Yell or throw small rocks in the direction of the bear.

• Get out your bear spray and use it when the bear is about 40 feet away.

• If you’re attacked, don’t play dead. Fight back with anything available. People have successfully defended themselves with pen knives, trekking poles and even bare hands.

Source: Colorado Division of Wildlife

via Bear attacks man in East Vail | VailDaily.com.

VAIL — Justin Young was hoping he’d see a bear while working in the Vail Valley this summer, but he never wanted to see one as close as he did last Friday.

Young, 25, was working for his father’s construction business at a home in the 1500 block of Spring Hill Lane in East Vail when he took a break and took a stroll behind the home around 9 a.m. The next thing he knew he was about 20 feet from a black bear that he said weighed about 400 pounds.

“I spooked him,” Young said. “He immediately charged at me.”

Young, who lives in Florida full-time, said he feels incredibly fortunate to have survived the encounter. The bear hit him on the side of his head and again on the left side of his body before Young fell down. The bear knocked him out, he said, and when he regained consciousness the bear was gone. He got up and ran back to the house and told his coworkers what happened.

Young doubts his coworkers would have believed him if it wasn’t for the bear hair.

“They assumed I fell down the stairs and was full of it, until they saw I was covered in bear hair,” Young said.

He walked away with some cuts and bruises, and a nasty black eye, but that was it.

His parents, Chuck and Terry Young, of Eagle, saw pictures of their son’s cuts and bruises from his cell phone camera that morning. Terry Young said she got a picture message that said her son had quite the story to tell her.

“Now he has a whole new respect for bears,” Terry Young said.

Justin Young said he’s pretty sure he scared the bear because it was facing away from him as he approached it. The bear reacted and went on the defensive, he said.

“I’m very fortunate the bear was on the defensive and not the offensive,” Justin Young said.

After the bear hit him once near his left eye and temple, he put up his arm to protect himself. The bear got a pretty good scratch at his left arm, and that’s when Justin Young thinks he was knocked out.

He said he thinks his lifeless body as he laid there unconscious was what saved him. If he continued to fight back and try to protect himself, he said the bear may have done even more damage.

“It’s probably good he knocked me out,” Justin Young said. “I’m glad I wasn’t conscious for it.”

Justin Young said he has a lot of bruises and scratches on his body, too, which makes him think the bear continued to smack him around a bit while he was unconscious. He said the Division of Wildlife officer who responded to the scene told him a bear that size could exert 1,000 pounds of force.

The Vail Police Department responded to the call along with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Justin Young said he refused an ambulance ride to the hospital because he felt fine and doesn’t have health insurance.

“Now that it’s done and over with, and I know that I’m not going to die from it, it’s kind of a cool story,” Justin Young said.

Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Division of Wildlife, said the agency tracked the bear for more than 12 hours Friday and could see the bear a few times but couldn’t catch him. They tracked him with hound dogs but lost the scent when the bear’s trail led across asphalt, a surface much harder for dogs to smell.

“Any situation in Colorado where we deal with an aggressive animal injuring a person, the policy is typically that the animal is going to be put down,” Hampton said.

Hampton said that while it’s not exactly common to hear of a bear attacking or charging at a person, it does happen several times a year in Colorado. There were three incidents last year in the Aspen-area alone where people were physically injured by bears, he said.

“That being said, it’s more common to get attacked by your neighbor’s dog than a bear,” Hampton said.

Hampton said he didn’t have information on the size or sex of the bear that attacked Justin Young. He said 400 pounds sounds pretty large, though, for a black bear this time of year.

“What we find is that most often, because of their hair and how much hair they have, it makes them appear much larger,” Hampton said. “Guessing the weight of a bear is extremely difficult.”

via Bear attacks man in East Vail | VailDaily.com.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A hiker who was attacked by a black bear in eastern Kentucky says he was about to stab the bear in the eye with his pocket knife when another hiker threw his day pack and distracted the animal.

Springfield resident Tim Scott told The Associated Press on Monday that the bear had his teeth in his thigh and was shaking him back and forth when the other hiker threw the pack and knocked the bear sideways.

The 56-year-old Scott was hiking in Red River Gorge ahead of his wife and son Sunday when the bear appeared. Officials say the attack was the first recorded bear attack on a person in Kentucky.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/boone/districts/cumberland/redriver_gorge.shtml

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/boone/safety/critters/bearsafe.shtml

Officials have closed the popular scenic area inside the Daniel Boone National Forest while they try to capture the animal.

Scott says he was treated at University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington and received 50 to 60 stitches for his wounds.

via Black bear attacks hiker in Red River Gorge – State & Regional – Wire – Kentucky.com.

The Red River Gorge area in Daniel Boone National Forest is closed until further notice because of an attack by a black bear Sunday.

Officials have not released the hiker’s name or discussed the extent of his injuries.

The man, said to be in his mid-50s, was hiking with his wife and son on Pinch-Em-Tight Trail on Sunday when a black bear approached and attacked unprovoked, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Kimberly Morgan said. The man, a Springfield resident, was taken to a hospital in Irvine and later to University of Kentucky Hospital.

State wildlife officials are setting traps in the area to capture the bear, and until they have caught it or know that it has left the area, the Red River Gorge recreation area will be closed, Morgan said.

“For this bear to have attacked, it’s an aggressive bear,” she said.

The closed area includes all National Forest System lands north of Natural Bridge State Resort Park to U.S. Highway 460 in Menifee, Powell and Wolfe counties.

Anyone who sees a black bear in the Red River Gorge area is urged to call 1-800-252-5378.

via Red River Gorge is closed after bear attack – Latest News – Kentucky.com.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A female camper fought off an attacking bear early Sunday morning in the Sandia Mountains.

Campers awoke to find a bear pawing at their tent.

The bear then grabbed a female camper and dragged her out of the tent. Game Wardens say the bear was going after food in the tent.

“Right now, any easy food source such as a tent in the middle of the night is going to be somethign that’s naturally going to attract them,” New Mexigo Game and Fish Sgt. Donald Jaramillo said.

The alert camper punched the bear in the nose, stood up to look bigger and then ran to her vehicle and climbed on top it.

“You don’t typically want to run directly away, try to out run it, but slowly back away. But yes, if it does start attacking you fight it off with whatever means you have availale at the time,” Jaramillo said.

Game and Fish officers spent most of Sunday looking for the bear with a volunteer who has bloodhounds. Game Wardens then tried to set traps to catch the bear. It needs to be tested for diseases and state law says it must be “destroyed.”

The woman was transported to University of New Mexico Hospital for injuries to her hip and both calves.

Game and Fish officials said campers must secure food and trash away from where they sleep.

If you encounter an aggressive bear, try to look big and fight back. Both of those tips worked in this case.

via Woman survives bear attack in Sandias | Albuquerque, N.M. | KRQE News 13.

(CNN) — Authorities shot and killed a grizzly bear that mauled a 70-year-old man near Yellowstone National Park, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokesman said Saturday.

Agents tracked the bear via a radio collar and killed it near the site of the attack, said the spokesman, Eric Kezsler.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office had closed part of the Shoshone National Forest while they searched for the large adult male bear, which apparently attacked Erwin Frank Evert after being captured and tranquilized there by researchers Thursday.

Evert was unarmed and fatally wounded, the sheriff’s office said. He was in the forest with his wife, a member of a federal team of researchers studying grizzly bears, authorities said.

Members of the team had packed up their equipment and left the area after tranquilizing the bear and putting the radio collar on it, the sheriff’s office said. But officials said Evert was attacked when he wandered back into the capture area, located in the Kitty Creek Drainage.

Game wardens and federal authorities began searching for the bear Friday.

The 2.4-million-acre Shoshone National Forest is just east of Yellowstone National Park.

via Authorities Kill Grizzly Bear That Mauled Man At Yellowstone.

A camper woke to find a chunk of his ear had been bitten off by a black bear.

Rob Holmes, 24, slept as the bear entered his tent and ripped off a lump of flesh.

He found out about the attack when a friend woke him and his face was covered in blood. There were teeth marks on their tent.

Rob said: “I felt something on my face. I knew I’d been hurt but not how bad.”

Experts in Montana, US, confirmed mechanic Rob had been bitten by a black bear.

Medics used 21 stitches to reattach the chunk of flesh.

via Ear, a bear’s in our tent – mirror.co.uk.

The wife and daughter of a Park Ridge man fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in Wyoming voiced anger today at a research team that snared and collared the bear involved in last week’s attack.

Countering authorities’ account of the mauling, the family of Erwin Evert says he knew little about what the research team was doing and did not go looking for the team’s trap site during the hike that ended with his death.

“He just knew they were doing some sort of research. He had no idea they were going to be baiting, trapping and collaring bears in our backyard,” said his daughter, Mara Evert Domingue of Louisiana.

“If he had known that, he never would have walked up that trail.”

The danger should have been more clearly marked, his family said.

For weeks before the attack, a yellow ribbon warned about a dangerous bear along the trail Evert walked, his family said. But there were no other warning signs, and Evert and his neighbors were never told specifically about the activities of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, a group of state and federal agencies that monitor the local bears, his family said.

Evert did not go past the warning ribbon before the day of the attack, said his widow, Yolanda Evert. She said she isn’t sure where her husband encountered the bear, but she said she doesn’t think he would have disregarded the warning and walked past the tape.

“He was curious about it, but he wouldn’t go beyond that. He stayed on the trail,” she said.

Authorities have said the research team collared a 430-pound male bear and left the area near Yellowstone National Park about two miles from Evert’s cabin around 1 p.m. June 17. Evert went for a walk just before 1 p.m. and was found dead hours later. A sharpshooter later killed the bear from a helicopter.

Scott Steward, the sheriff of Park County, Wyo., said Evert questioned the bear research team and was “very inquisitive about their work.” Evert told a friend he planned to look for the trap site, Steward said.

“We’re not dealing with a case where someone didn’t know (the trap site) was there,” the sheriff said Wednesday. “The victim definitely knew it was there.”

via Family: Botanist killed by bear not aware of full danger – Chicago Breaking News.

The wife and daughter of a Park Ridge man fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in Wyoming voiced anger today at a research team that snared and collared the bear involved in last week’s attack.

Countering authorities’ account of the mauling, the family of Erwin Evert says he knew little about what the research team was doing and did not go looking for the team’s trap site during the hike that ended with his death.

“He just knew they were doing some sort of research. He had no idea they were going to be baiting, trapping and collaring bears in our backyard,” said his daughter, Mara Evert Domingue of Louisiana.

“If he had known that, he never would have walked up that trail.”

The danger should have been more clearly marked, his family said.

For weeks before the attack, a yellow ribbon warned about a dangerous bear along the trail Evert walked, his family said. But there were no other warning signs, and Evert and his neighbors were never told specifically about the activities of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, a group of state and federal agencies that monitor the local bears, his family said.

Evert did not go past the warning ribbon before the day of the attack, said his widow, Yolanda Evert. She said she isn’t sure where her husband encountered the bear, but she said she doesn’t think he would have disregarded the warning and walked past the tape.

“He was curious about it, but he wouldn’t go beyond that. He stayed on the trail,” she said.

Authorities have said the research team collared a 430-pound male bear and left the area near Yellowstone National Park about two miles from Evert’s cabin around 1 p.m. June 17. Evert went for a walk just before 1 p.m. and was found dead hours later. A sharpshooter later killed the bear from a helicopter.

Scott Steward, the sheriff of Park County, Wyo., said Evert questioned the bear research team and was “very inquisitive about their work.” Evert told a friend he planned to look for the trap site, Steward said.

“We’re not dealing with a case where someone didn’t know (the trap site) was there,” the sheriff said Wednesday. “The victim definitely knew it was there.”

via Family: Botanist killed by bear not aware of full danger – Chicago Breaking News.

The family of a Park Ridge botanist killed last week by a grizzly bear near his Wyoming summer cabin told the Chicago Sun-Times this morning Erwin Evert had no idea researchers were trapping bears nearby when he faced one in a deadly encounter last Thursday.

“He knew they were doing some sort of bear research — and that’s all he knew,” said Evert’s daughter, Mara Evert Domingue, 44, in a telephone interview from her home in Louisiana.

Domingue and Evert’s widow, Yolanda Evert, said they’re outraged that there were no signs warning residents about the researchers’ work, which involved baiting, tranquilizing, collaring and then releasing the bears.

“I’m just furious,” said the 72-year-old Yolanda Evert, who is staying with her daughter.

Some two weeks before his death, Erwin Evert, 70, had taken a hike along a trail near the couple’s cabin and had encountered some “yellow ribbon,” which warned the public to stay away because dangerous bears were in the area, his wife said. But Evert’s widow said the trail should have been closed and that researchers should have informed the nearby cabin owners about the specifics of their work.

Park County, Wyo., Sheriff Scott Steward — whose agency initially investigated the mauling — gave the Sun-Times a different account Wednesday, saying it appeared that Evert knew researchers were in the area capturing bears and that signs, or the absence of them, likely would have had little effect.

“Common sense would have told most people it’s not a good idea to go into an area where [they're] trapping bears,” Steward said. “It’s just a matter of poor judgment.”

Investigators say Evert’s mauled body was found the evening of June 17 in the same area where the research team had caught, tranquilized and collared a grizzly earlier in the day before releasing it.

But Yolanda Evert said her husband had no idea he might be encountering a groggy bear and — as an experienced botanist very familiar with bears and their terrain — he wouldn’t have put himself at unnecessary risk.

“He’s encountered [grizzlies] many times,” she said. “I’ve had grizzlies at the window of my cabin. I’ve had them right at my window when I was home alone.”

Last Thursday, Erwin Evert — a retired teacher and an amateur botanist — set off about 12:45 p.m. on a hike he’d taken many times before, his wife said.

“He put on his stocking cap because we’d had snow flurries that morning, and it was a little windy,” Yolanda Evert said. “He said he’d be home in a couple of hours. I didn’t even give him a hug or anything because it was such a usual trip.”

The botanist was supposed to be back at the cabin by 4 p.m, but when he didn’t return, his wife said she headed out toward the hiking trail head and called out, “Erwin! Erwin!”

An hour later, he still hadn’t returned — which was odd, his wife said — because he knew she had prepared an early dinner for him.

“I had deviled eggs, marinated beef and rice ready for him,” Evert said. “I had the table all set.”

About that time, Yolanda Evert said saw two men on horseback that she knew were somehow connected to the bear research.

She asked them if they’d seen her husband and that he was missing.

The men on horseback said very little, but one of them, “turned that horse around and whipped up that road like a flash.”

About 15 minutes later, the horseman who’d galloped away, returned.

“He came down, and I said, ‘Did you you find him? Did you find him?’” Yolanda Evert recalled. “He said, ‘I found him. He’s gone.” And then he put his head down and got off his horse. I almost fell apart.”

Searchers later caught and killed the bear — a 430-pound male — that attacked Evert.

Chuck Schwartz, leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, said this week that he couldn’t talk about the bear attack involving Evert because it’s under investigation. But he said it’s standard procedure for the team — made up of state and federal researchers — to post signs letting the public know that a bear-trapping operation is under way and that the area is closed to the public.

via Widow of man killed by bear ‘furious’ at researchers :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The bearded, sandy-haired geologist was on a job in the remote Alaska wilderness when a grizzly bear suddenly emerged from the brush just yards away.

So Robert Miller did what he was trained to do — he fell to the ground, clasped his hands around his neck to protect it and played dead.

The bear wandered away and Miller thought he was in the clear. Pulling himself to his knees, he found out how wrong he was.

The bear charged again and “this time he didn’t want me to move. He was really thrashing me around,” the 54-year-old said Wednesday from his hospital bed, his right arm and leg swathed in bandages, his left ear criss-crossed by stitches.

Miller had been out scoping possible mining projects Sunday for his employer, Millrock Resources Inc., in a remote valley of the Alaska Range mountains near the Iditarod Trail. He’d finished for the day and was waiting for a helicopter to pick him up.

Miller was clearing brush with a handsaw so the helicopter could land, when the bear appeared about 25 feet away.

“When he stepped into the clearing he didn’t snarl and stand up and show me how big he was. He just came for me,” Miller said.

Miller managed to pull out his .357 Magnum revolver and squeeze off a single shot, possibly grazing the animal. Then his survival training kicked in: He fell onto his stomach, dug his face into the dirt and covered his neck with his hands to protect it from the grizzly’s claws and teeth.

The bear went for his exposed right arm, gnawing and clawing it and chipping the bone off the tip of his elbow. The attack lasted 10-15 seconds, then the animal lumbered away.

“I thought it was over, I thought he was gone,” Miller said.

He rolled over and was getting to his knees when the bear, which was only about 40 yards away, came at him again.

“As soon as I turned, he was running already. It was shoot, shoot and roll back over,” Miller said.

He managed to fire two more shots, but with his right arm badly injured he thinks he missed the bear. Then he lay still as the animal gnawed and clawed at him.

“It was no problem to lay there with my neck covered and let him chew. It was actually painless at that point,” Miller said.

After the second attack, Miller played dead again, lying still for three to five minutes as thoughts raced through his mind. Was the bear still around? How bad was he bleeding? Where was his gun?

He tried to move and realized he couldn’t. He was too badly injured.

“I was just hoping my radio was still in my vest pocket and it was,” he said. “I got it out and started radioing mayday, which nobody answered.”

He tried calling for help about every 20 seconds; about 20 minutes passed before a voice came over the radio.

It was the helicopter pilot. Not knowing there had been a bear attack, he was calling in to let Miller know he was within five miles and needed to know the exact pickup spot.

“I told him what had happened. So he came in low, just doing outwardly expanding circles to make sure there was no bear around,” Miller said.

Reassured the grizzly was gone, the pilot flew to the next valley and picked up geologist Ryan Campbell, who was trained as a wilderness medic.

Campbell cleaned Miller’s wounds and applied pressure bandages to stem the bleeding. That’s when Miller really began hurting.

“When he was cleaning out the wounds with this spray bottle … it was a mixture of fire and electricity,” Miller said.

He was flown to a nearby air strip where an emergency medical technician was waiting, then taken by medical helicopter on the more than hour-long trip to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

Miller was fortunate to have survived, said Rick Sinnott, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist.

He should have been packing a more powerful gun, Sinnott said. “You have to be a very good shot or very lucky to stop a brown bear with a .357 Magnum.”

Miller did the right thing to play dead with the grizzly, Sinnott said.

“Most of the time they just want to neutralize you and if you are playing dead after they swat you or hit you, you are pretty much neutralized. But if you try to run or stand right up or are screaming or waving your arms around, then they think you are still a danger,” he said.

Propped up in his hospital bed Wednesday, Miller gingerly touched what he thought were bite marks just above his buttocks on his left side. His right arm was heavily bandaged from bicep to wrist; another bulky bandage encased his right thigh, which the bear had chewed from the back of his leg to the front.

Miller’s face was unscathed except for a few scratches, but the bear nearly ripped off his left ear. Using his finger, he traced where it had been reattached with two rows of stitches.

Still, the geologist, who until five years ago worked as a roofer, said he holds no grudge against the bear.

“The bear was just doing what bears do,” Miller said.

via The Associated Press: Alaska geologist survives 2 attacks by grizzly.

After Tuesday’s bear mauling of 45-year-old Anchorage Resident Sean Berkey, State Fish and Game officials are recommending the closing of Rover’s Run trail.

However, State Fish and Game officials also say they can’t close trails within city parks, such as the Far North Bicentennial Park, where Rover’s Run trail is located. Rick Sinnott is a biologist for the State and says the Department of Fish and Game doesn’t have jurisdiction in those areas, so all he can do is just make recommendation like anybody else.

Instead, the municipality has the final call on whether to close the trail, and in this case, leaders have chosen to keep Rover’s Run trail open. Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan says he doesn’t think it’s particularly necessary,

Anchorage Bear Control

Should the Municipality of Anchorage do more to protect its citizens from bears?

Cyclist Plays Dead; Survives Grizzly Bear Attack : Read Full Story

Yes

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nor does the city have the ability, to enforce the closing. Sullivan says there is no one to patrol the area and citations are not given for trail users found in a closed area.

He goes on to say that it really becomes a common sense issue for the public when choosing to go to an area identified as having a potential danger there.

But, Fish and Game officials say it is prudent in a case like this to close the trail for at least a little while to prevent like incidences from happening again in the next day or two.

Sinnott says he can’t imagine any other governmental jurisdiction in the world that wouldn’t close a trail if some one were mauled on it and it just seems like a pretty extraordinary action on the city’s part.

Wildlife experts say the bear that mauled pediatric pharmacist Sean Berkey, acted defensively to protect her cub when Berkey’s fast moving bike surprised her. Sinnott says that the bear is not aggressive, it’s defensive. He says if the bear was following people and attacking everyone willy nilly, then that would be aggressive.

Sinnott adds that’s why the mauling ended when Berkey played dead. Most officials agree the bear responded normally and that’s why a significant threat doesn’t exist right now along Rover’s Run trail, but as to why there’s a concentration of bears in that area during the summer, there’s conflicting ideas.

Wildlife officials say the bears need to come down to the low lands where the salmon are spawning to fish every summer. But Mayor Sullivan says that people are doing things that might be encouraging that population to come in to town and part of that is the rehabilitation of salmon streams.

Either way, both officials agree that people should exercise caution while spending time in the Rover’s Run trail area this time of year.

via Bear Attack: Rover’s Run Trail Open; State and City Disagree – KTVA.

Chicago – A northwest suburban man who dedicated his life to studying nature died last week when he was attacked by a grizzly bear just outside Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Erwin Evert, 70, of the 1400 block of Tyrell Avenue in Park Forest was found dead on the evening of June 17 in a remote area of the Shoshone National Forest in northwest Wyoming, about 10 miles east of Yellowstone, according to the Park County (Wyo.) Sheriff’s office.

A release from the sheriff’s office said the body was found by a member of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team in an area where bears were being captured for research. He died of “fatal injuries caused by an encounter with a bear,” the release said.

The researcher was searching the area after Evert’s wife notified him that her husband was missing, according to the sheriff’s office. Evert was not armed and was not carrying a pepper spray often used by hikers to deter grizzlies.

Game wardens, agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service searched for the bear suspected in the attack, a bear believed to have been captured earlier by the Grizzly Bear Study Team, tranquilized and then equipped with a radio collar as part of a research project.

On Saturday DNA tests confirmed that a bear shot and killed by searchers from a helicopter was the animal responsible for mauling Evert, Sheriff Scott Steward said.

Steward said the attack was the first he’s heard about in the Cody area, but bear attacks in the greater Park County area do occur.

“In this whole region of Park County it’s not uncommon to have one or two a year,” he said, adding most bear attacks are reported in late summer or early fall when hunting season begins.

Evert and his wife divided their time between a home in Park Ridge home and a cabin in Cody, Wyo., about two miles from the site he was killed, the sheriff said.

Evert was a botanist who studied plants in the Yellowstone area and collected thousands of samples which he shared with the Rocky Mountain Herbarium and the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, where he volunteered as a research associate, colleague Andrew Hipp of Morton said.

Evert had spent summers in Wyoming since purchasing a cabin there in 1971 and recently published a 750-page book on his 39 years of plant research, Hipp said. He provided Morton’s herbarium collection with more than 20,000 plant specimens and lectured there on his “explorations,” Hipp said.

“He was a real asset to the arboretum,” he said. “He really enriched our research into plant biodiversity.”

Funeral arrangements for Evert were not available at press time.

via Park Ridge Nature Researcher Fatally Mauled by Bear.

If this guy could somehow manage to get attacked by a shark he’d have the trifecta.

Some guys have all the luck.

And then there’s Rick Oliver, who might be one of the unluckiest men in the state, if not the world.

Oliver was mauled by a bear in his otherwise peaceful front yard a few weeks ago.

“It was like getting struck by lightning,” he said.

Turns out, Oliver might be one of the few people in the world capable of accurately making the bear-lightning analogy.

And for Oliver, 51, the two incidents seem to go hand in hand.

Ever since he was struck by lightning in 2006, Oliver says, he’s had trouble sleeping.

On restless nights, he tends to piddle about his farm, checking on his chickens, working on his tractors and, as he was in the wee hours of June 3, fixing up his Chevy Malibu.

About 2 a.m., he heard a distant rustling on his 17-acre spread, which is off Yates Mill Pond Road in an unincorporated sliver of Wake County between Cary and Raleigh.

As he turned to investigate, he was dealt a heavy blow. “I heard this strange huffing,” Oliver said. “And the next thing I know I had been run over and stepped on by a bear.”

The black bear’s claws gouged his wrist so deep that when he first took off his bandage, blood spewed onto his farmhouse floor. “Like a hose,” he said.

“That was when my daughter said, ‘Dad we need to take you to the emergency room.’ ”

The biggest cut was so deep and wide that doctors at WakeMed couldn’t sew it up. So doctors bandaged up Oliver and told him to keep pressure on the lacerations.

Nature 2, Oliver 0.

“He’s a little unlucky,” said Cameron Rhodes of Cary, who was married by Oliver at Piney Plain United Church of Christ in Cary, where Oliver is a minister. “But he’s even more lucky he has survived both of them.”

The chances of being attacked by a bear are rather slim, biologists say.

Between 2005 and 2009, only nine people were killed by bears in the United States, according to the N.C Wildlife Resources Commission.

Compare that to the 141 people who were killed by dogs during the same period, and you get the idea.

The chances of being struck by lightning are also extremely narrow. “You have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than getting killed by a bear,” a report published by the U.S. Forest Service’s Bear Aware program says.

So it doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out the extreme unlikelihood of both happening to the same person.

“The probability is infinitesimal,” said Ross Leadbetter, a statistician at UNC-Chapel Hill. “The closest approximation is certainly zero.”

Bears in the Triangle

The odds get thinner still in the Triangle, where people vastly outnumber omnivorous bears. About 11,000 bears live in North Carolina. But there are very few in the Raleigh and Cary area, said Joe Folta, a wildlife biologist at the N.C Wildlife Resources Commission.

“The ones that do pass through are the one- to one-and-a-half-year-old bears who have been chased off by the bigger bears from the eastern and northern part of the state,” he said.

It’s common for young bears to travel through the Piedmont region in search of food or love during mating season, said Folta, who has studied bears for 25 years. Black bears will usually run the other way when confronted with danger.

“The best thing to do with a black bear is to clap, bark, or make a loud noise and make yourself look bigger to scare them away,” he said. “It’s not uncommon to find a bear going through your garbage, or even destroying your barbecue grill or bird feeder.”

Oliver, who was on a much needed vacation in Myrtle Beach last week, admits he may have left something to attract the bear. “Leftovers,” Oliver says, “from lunch in a bag up on the top step.”

via Wake County man hit by lightning — then mauled by a bear – Weird – NewsObserver.com.

A B.C. man is recovering from shock after narrowly avoiding a grizzly bear attack in Robson Valley, southeast of Prince George.

Leon Lorenz, a wildlife filmmaker from Dunster, had been following grizzly bear tracks and filming the animals feeding in the forested area for the last six weeks. Last Monday afternoon, he spotted a mother bear with her back to him about 23 metres away. He immediately put his camera down and started recording.

Lorenz said he had moved his camera slightly to get a better view. That was when the 400-pound bear caught his scent.

She sniffed the air, then turned around and looked right at him, he said. She quickly wheeled around a spruce tree about four metres away, and reappeared with her cub behind her, roaring and charging at high speed toward Lorenz.

The critical events after that, said Lorenz, occurred in about 20 seconds.

He remembers instinctively throwing his camera into wide-angle mode so it would capture all the action, before whipping out his handgun to fire a warning shot.

“I was blinded because she was zigzagging in and out between the trees — I didn’t know if she was going to come at me from the right or the left,” he said. “I had no target.”

Lorenz aimed high and pulled the trigger — right when the bear came crashing through the branches several feet away. Spooked, she turned back around with her cub and ran off, said Lorenz.

“If I had waited a split-second later, she would have had me,” he said. “She was a blur, going by me, she was so fast. Even if I had hit her, her momentum would have carried her forward. She was running on so much adrenalin, she would have made sure I was dead before she died, and her cub probably would have attacked, too.”

He said he has filmed this particular grizzly twice before — once at 18 metres apart, another at 45 metres.

Both times, he was able to stay out of sight so that even when the bear could smell him, she had no way of locating him.

Lorenz, a father of two sons, said he has encountered many bears before in his 19 years of filmmaking in the wild, but he has never been attacked by them. This was the first time he has had to use his handgun to protect himself. “God’s hand was on that gun,” he said. “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect — she was out to kill me.”

via Filmmaker fends off grizzly attack with handgun.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – Montana wildlife officials say a Washington man was injured by a black bear that bit through his tent at a primitive campsite in the Lolo National Forest in western Montana.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens say Rob Holmes of Ellensburg, Wash., was awakened at about 4:30 a.m. Monday when he felt an animal bite his ear lobe. It took 21 stitches to close the wound.

Warden Capt. Jeff Darrah says it appears the bear was drawn into the area by food and other attractants that were left at a nearby camp site.

The U.S. Forest Service campground southwest of St. Regis will be closed while officials try to capture the bear. FWP Regional Supervisor Mack Long says if they can find the bear they’ll euthanize it because it has become habituated to human food.

via Daily Record-News – Ellensburg man survives bear attack in Montana.

Food and garbage abandoned at a campsite in Mineral County likely attracted a black bear that bit a Washington man on the head early Monday, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Rob Holmes, of Ellensburg, Wash., required 21 stitches on his earlobe after the bear bit him through his tent around 4:30 a.m., as he and a friend slept up Little Joe Road just southwest of St. Regis.

Holmes’ injuries were not life-threatening, and he and his friend had left for home by Monday afternoon.

After the bear bit Holmes, the man screamed. He then grabbed a flashlight and tried to follow it before driving to a Missoula hospital.

“It reacted to people, which is good,” said Mack Long, FWP regional supervisor. “But the downside is that once it is habituated, it’s almost impossible to change.”

Holmes kept a clean camp, Long said, but other campers left behind food and other attractants at the U.S. Forest Service campground, which is “primitive” and not a sanctioned campground.

“He did everything right,” said Jeff Darrah, FWP warden captain in Missoula.

The FWP is currently attempting to track down the bear, which will be euthanized once it’s found. In the meantime, the camping area is closed until further notice.

FWP officials said the radius and patterns of the bite marks on Holmes and in his tent were identical to those found on cans of food and other items at the nearby abandoned campsite.

It is unknown how long that campsite had been abandoned, but the bear likely had visited the site for at least a couple of nights, said Long. It likely was a temporary campsite for transients, he said.

Long put all blame on the campers who abandoned their site and left food and other items behind. He said “attack” is not the correct word for the incident, which will unfortunately lead to a dead bear.

Long said he believes it is the only reported case of a human injury caused by a bear in western Montana this year.

The message is clear, he stressed: Don’t leave food and other attractants open at a campsite, and never leave food behind.

via Black bear bites through tent, into sleeping man’s ear near St. Regis.

Some of you might remember that I have said previously that every year in the Cody, WY area there is one or more human versus grizzly encounters. Here is the current one thanks to KULR 8 News television broadcasting from Billings, MT. This is my “backyard” and part of where I have hunted for the last 30 years.

(Story Updated: Jun 18, 2010 at 1:24 PM MDT )

Press Release from Park County Sheriff’s Department:

At approximately 6:48 PM on June 17th the Park County Sheriff’s Office was notified that a subject had possibly been mauled and killed by a grizzly bear in the Kitty Creek Drainage located in the Shoshone National Forest west of Cody.

The victim, 70 year old Erwin Frank Evert of Cody was reported missing by his wife to Chad Dickinson, a member of the USGS Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) based out of Bozeman. Dickinson and his team were working within the Kitty Creek Drainage snaring grizzly bears for research. Dickinson rode back up Kitty Creek to an area where earlier they had caught a large adult male grizzly. Once at the capture sight, Dickinson found Evert dead as a result of fatal injuries caused by an encounter with the bear.

At approximately 8:30 PM Wardens of the Wyoming Game and Fish and a Park County Sheriff’s Deputy located Evert approximately 2 miles from the road in a remote rugged area. Park County Sheriff Search and Rescue was called in and Evert’s body was removed while Wardens provided armed security. The recovery was completed at approximately 12:18am on June 18th.

At this time it appears that members of IGBST had captured the bear and tranquilized the bear for research purposes, put a radio collar on the bear and then packed up their equipment and left the area. At some point Evert wandered into the capture area where he was fatally wounded. Evert was not armed nor was he carrying bear spray.

On June 18th The US Forest Service issued a closure order for the Kitty Creek Drainage. Game Wardens, US Fish and Wildlife Agents and USFS Law Enforcement Agents are diligently searching the area for the bear with the aid of an electronic tracking device. If located the fate of the bear will be determined by US Fish and Wildlife Agents.

via Bear attacks again | Field & Stream.

A man hiking near Yellowstone National Park on Thursday was killed by a grizzly bear, the same animal that researchers had tranquilized, captured and released earlier in the day.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was reported missing by his wife, Yolanda, to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about seven miles east of Yellowstone.

The Everts own a cabin in the area, where Erwin, a botanist, often hiked to research the region’s plants and animals.

When her husband didn’t return from an afternoon hike, Yolanda went looking for him and met one of the bear researchers returning from the capture site. The study team member returned to the site, where Evert’s body was discovered.

According to the Park County, Wyo., sheriff’s office, which was called to the location, Evert was not armed or carrying bear spray.

Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the adult male grizzly was located Saturday morning by trackers following a signal from a radio collar that had been placed around the bear’s neck.

The animal was shot and killed from a helicopter, and died about 2 miles from where Evert’s body was found. A lab analysis confirmed that it was the same animal that mauled Evert.

Concern has been raised that area residents weren’t well informed of the possible risks, but according to the Billings Gazette, Evert was aware of the possible dangers. Family friend and professional colleague Chuck Neal said that he spoke with Evert before his death, having received a call from him last week about the signs posted in the area, and that his friend was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

“We try to do everything we can to minimize the risks. But we can’t protect ourselves against people that ignore every warning we give, and we can’t protect people against themselves,” Servheen said. “The whole thing is regrettable; just one tragedy followed by another.”

The incident is the first fatal mauling by a grizzly in the area in 25 years, and the first such fatal attack to take place at a site where researchers had recently trapped and released a bear.

via Grizzly bear kills hiker near Yellowstone | Outposts | Los Angeles Times.

CODY — Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal mauling by a grizzly bear Thursday of a Shoshone National Forest cabin owner. The incident occurred at a site where a bear had been captured and released earlier that day.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was reported missing to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team who had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about seven miles east of Yellowstone National Park.

Researchers had earlier trapped and released an adult male grizzly in the area, according to information released by Park County Sheriff Scott Steward.

A longtime friend and professional colleague said Evert was aware that researchers had been trying for several days to trap a bear in the area, and that friends and family members were unsure why he had hiked into the capture site despite knowing the risks.

“None of us understand it and apparently never will,” said retired ecologist Chuck Neal, author of “Grizzlies in the Mist.”

Neal said he often hiked the woods around Yellowstone with Evert, a botanist, sharing a common interest in researching the region’s plants and animals.

Neal, a survivor of several close encounters with grizzlies, said Evert had called him last week asking about a sign posted at Kitty Creek warning about bear-trapping activities, and that Evert was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

Neal said bear researchers were returning from the capture site when they were told by Evert’s wife, Yolanda, that he was missing.

A study team member went back to the capture site and found Evert’s body. Wardens with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and a sheriff’s deputy responded at 8:30 p.m. to the remote location, about two miles from Highway 14-16-20.

Members of Park County Search and Rescue recovered Evert’s body around midnight, with assistance from Game and Fish workers, who provided armed security, Steward said in a written statement released Friday afternoon.

Steward said that Evert, who was not armed and was not carrying bear spray, apparently wandered into the capture site sometime after the bear had been released.

Neal said he did not know how researchers returning from the site failed to cross paths with Evert while he was hiking in, unless the botanist had left the trail at some point.

Bear not relocated

The bear had not been captured before Thursday, and had not been relocated from another area, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Researchers drew blood from the captured bear and fitted it with a radio collar before releasing it, Servheen said, but it has not yet been determined whether the previously captured bear was the same one that killed Evert.

Servheen said that wildlife officials will try to compare any DNA left by the attacking bear, most likely in its saliva, with blood drawn from the captured bear.

It is uncertain whether that difficult process of analysis will prove possible, he said.

Steward said that the U.S. Forest Service had issued a closure order for the Kitty Creek drainage and that federal wildlife and law enforcement agents are searching for the bear using electronic tracking equipment.

Servheen initially said Friday morning that wildlife officials would not try to trap the bear again. But he said later that efforts were being made to recapture it.

“If we get a chance to trap it, we will trap it,” he said.

He said that the investigation of the mauling is in its early stages, and that authorities will work to try and re-create what happened.

If it is determined that the bear trapped Thursday is the one that killed Evert, federal wildlife officials will decide the bear’s fate, he said.

“We’ll try to make a decision as to whether the actions of the bear were natural aggression,” Servheen said.

“We will try to make that decision based on what we know after we put all the facts together,” he said, adding that re-creating an attack without any witnesses can prove difficult.

Some cabin owners have said they were unaware of research work being done in the area, and questioned whether wildlife and land management agencies were communicating effectively with the public about such activities. The press is not routinely notified of study team field work.

Servheen said that interagency partners including the Wyoming Game and Fish and Shoshone National Forest personnel are aware of researchers’ work in the area, and that signs are posted in areas where bears are being captured.

He said he was unaware of what other public notifications, if any, were routinely made about bear capture efforts.

“The people doing this are highly trained professionals who follow very detailed protocols. One of the most important protocols is public safety,” he said.

“We want to make sure people don’t walk into these places, so they place signs lower down on the trail” warning people to avoid the area, he said.

Servheen said “it would be impossible to enter this area” without noticing warning signs

Close friends

Neal said Evert and his wife spent summers each year for the last three decades at their Kitty Creek cabin, and that they were close family friends.

“We walked many miles and spent many days together,” he said.

Evert was a research field botanist working for the Morton Arboretum in Chicago, and he also worked as a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming, Neal said.

Evert had just published “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area,” a book offering an exhaustive catalog of native plants, including a series of annotated maps, Neal said.

“It’s a magnificent book. It weighs about 5 pounds,” he said.

“It really was his life’s work, so it’s good, and I’m grateful that he got to see that published,” Neal said.

“He just turned 70 this spring, but he was still very active and very fit,” Neal said.

Neal described Evert as “a committed man who could focus like a laser beam on his goal.”

Persistent windy conditions around Cody over the last week made it a particularly dangerous time for hiking in grizzly country, Neal said.

Bears are unable to easily hear or smell people approaching under such blustery conditions, and are more likely to be surprised, eliciting a defensive response.

Although bear encounters around Yellowstone are not uncommon, including ones that result in serious injuries to people, fatal bear attacks are relatively rare.

Neal said the incident was the result of “incredible bad luck, and also bad judgment.”

“I’m thinking it had to be a close-range, surprise encounter,” he said.

via Grizzly kills botanist in attack near Yellowstone park.

Neal said bear spray or a gun “may not have done any good” in such an attack.

CODY — A lab analysis has confirmed that a bear shot dead early Saturday morning near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park is the one that fatally mauled a man Thursday afternoon in the same area.

The adult male grizzly bear had been snared and tranquilized by federal researchers Thursday morning and fitted with a radio collar before being released.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was found dead at the capture site Thursday after the bear was released. Evert ignored warning signs posted advising hikers to avoid the area because of the likelihood of a dangerous bear encounter.

Wildlife officials used a helicopter and radio tracking gear to locate and shoot the bear Saturday morning, after making unsuccessful attempts Friday to catch it.

Rapid DNA testing of genetic material from the bear that was left on the victim matched blood drawn from the bear when it was tranquilized Thursday, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Servheen said he decided late Friday to authorize killing the bear if it could not be captured, because experts could not definitively determine whether the animal’s actions were natural and defensive or aberrant and unusually aggressive.

“We regret the whole idea of having to remove a bear, but we just wanted to be sure. I stand by that decision to remove him,” Servheen said.

Servheen said the bear was initially near a road where it might have been captured, but it later began moving deeper into the wilderness, where it could later shed its radio collar and become exceptionally difficult to locate.

Servheen said he and other agency officials agreed that “the best thing to do for the safety of the public is to remove the bear.”

The U.S. Forest Service is now expected to reopen the Kitty Creek area, about seven miles east of Yellowstone, where the attack occurred. The area had been closed as a public safety precaution until it could be determined that the bear involved in the mauling was either not a threat or dead.

Friends and wildlife officials have said that Evert, a botanist who owned a cabin at Kitty Creek, was well aware of the risks of entering the capture area, but that he was curious about work being done there, and ignored verbal and posted warnings.

The incident is the first fatal mauling by a grizzly bear in the area in 25 years, and the first such fatal attack to take place at a site where researchers had recently trapped and released a bear.

Servheen said the U.S. Geological Survey crew from Bozeman that had been trapping bears in the area has left. The bear that killed Evert was the last one they had sought to capture.

Authorities will later complete a comprehensive incident report, but an initial review indicates that there were no obvious signs that researchers failed to follow standard trapping protocols, Servheen said.

“We try to do everything we can to minimize the risks. But we can’t protect ourselves against people that ignore every warning we give, and we can’t protect people against themselves,” he said.

“The whole thing is regrettable; just one tragedy followed by another,” Servheen said.

Evert was a research field botanist working for the Morton Arboretum in Chicago. He also worked as a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming.

He had just published “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area,” a book offering an exhaustive catalog of native plants, including a series of annotated maps.

Evert and his wife, Yolanda, had spent summers at their Kitty Creek cabin for the past 30 years, according to family friend and professional colleague Chuck Neal, a retired ecologist and author of “Grizzlies in the Mist.”

“It really was his life’s work, so it’s good, and I’m grateful that he got to see that published,” Neal said of the book.

Neal described Evert as “a committed man who could focus like a laser beam on his goal.”

Neal, a survivor of several close encounters with grizzlies, said Evert had called him last week asking about a sign posted near Kitty Creek warning about bear-trapping activities, and that Evert was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

Evert called his daughter early Thursday and described to her the route he planned to take from his cabin to the capture site, and it “was kind of his favorite route for light hiking,” but it did not follow the main trail, Neal said.

Persistent windy conditions around Cody over the past week made it a particularly dangerous time for hiking in grizzly country, he said.

Bears are unable to easily hear or smell people approaching under such blustery conditions, and are more likely to be surprised, eliciting a defensive response.

Evert was not armed and was not carrying bear spray when he was attacked, according to information released by the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m thinking it had to be a close-range, surprise encounter,” Neal said.

He said bear spray or a gun “may not have done any good” in such an attack.

Neal said the incident was the result of “incredible bad luck, and also bad judgment.”

“He was an extraordinary man who made a very ordinary mistake,” Neal said.

via DNA tests match dead bear to mauling.

The fatal grizzly bear attack on 70 year-old Erwin Evert near Yellowstone Park by a bear that may have been trapped, tranquilized, and radio-collared just hours before Evert's death raises perplexing questions. Why did Evert's wife notify Chad Dickinson of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team that her husband was missing? Normally, people would call the Wyoming Game and Fish Department or Shoshone National Forest officials.

Was the area where the bear was captured posted with warnings, or was it closed? U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator Chris Servheen told the Billings Gazette “it would have been impossible to enter this area” without noticing signs. What, exactly, did the signs say? If agency officials failed to close the area, could they be held liable for Mr. Evert's death?

In 1983, a grizzly bear that had been captured 20 times and drugged 12 times dragged Roger May out of his tent at a U.S. Forest Service campground near West Yellowstone, killed him,and partially consumed him. Even before the incident, there was speculation that after being trapped, drugged, and handled, bears became more aggressive and dangerous.

In the 1980s, bears were drugged with Sernylan, known on the streets as “Angel Dust.” New drugs are reputedly safer, but old concerns about the effects of drugging bears have never gone away.

If trapping and drugging bears isn't dangerous, why post warnings? If trapping and drugging bears is dangerous, why not close the area?

What was the purpose of the bear research that may have cost Evert his life?

State and federal agencies tell hunters and hikers in grizzly country to carry bear spray. The agencies claim bear spray provides better protection than a firearm. Why did Wyoming Game and Fish Department wardens provide “armed security” for the Park County Sheriff's Department search and rescue team that retrieved Evert's body? Why didn't the wardens use bear spray?

via More questions than answers in fatal bear attack near Yellowstone.