With dangerous bear encounters on the rise, experts warned that hunting season could bring on more conflicts between people and bruins.
Well, the experts were right. This past weekend, a hunter in Wyoming was fortunate to escape a harrowing run-in with a mother grizzly and her two cubs.
Unfortunately, though, the conflict was fatal for the bears involved.
The Wyoming Fish and Game Department confirmed the incident took place on Saturday morning. The hunter was able to make his way back to a trailhead. From there, he was scooped up by a helicopter and flown to a nearby hospital, where he received treatment for injuries that are serious but non-life-threatening. The hunter was attacked after he suddenly and unexpectedly found himself within close proximity to the bear and her cubs.
Jim Zumbo, the former hunting editor for Outdoor Life, happens to live in the area where the attack took place just outside the city of Cody. So when he saw several Wyoming Game and Fish trucks and horse trailers gathering near the Shoshone River, he stopped to see what all the commotion was about.
“Two men were standing by their horses, and I learned they were part of the three-man party involved in the attack. I spoke to them briefly. I learned a thumbnail sketch of the event.”
Like most bear attacks, it happened fast. The grizzly came charging out of the timber and attacked the man before the hunting party even realized what was happening.
“While the bear was atop the man, the other two hunters were able to fire and kill the bear. The victim had his thumb torn off. All agreed that if the hunter had been alone, it could have been a far different ending.
When I talked to them, two hours after the incident, they were in some state of shock.”
A Regional Wildlife Supervisor issued a statement about the incident in a press release.
“The safety of outdoor recreationists is always at the forefront of our minds. Our thoughts are with the individual who was injured, and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.”
This most recent attack comes just a week after reports surfaced of two separate grizzly bear attacks in Alberta on the same day. So far this year, several other grizzly bear conflicts have been documented, including a sheep hunter in Alaska that is lucky to be alive after a recent grizzly attack. A grizzly bear also ripped a camper out of a tent during a fatal attack in Montana earlier this summer. In another instance, an Alaska man was holed up in a remote camp for a week and had to fend off multiple grizzly attacks before being rescued by the Coast Guard. Another Alaska man had part of his face crushed in a brutal grizzly attack this spring.
