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2011-07-07 11:13:20
CODY, Wyo (Reuters) - A female grizzly bear attacked and killed a man who
encountered the bruin and her cubs while he was hiking with his wife on
Wednesday in Yellowstone National Park, park officials said.
The fatal mauling occurred about a mile and a half from the start of the Wapiti
Lake trail, and another group of hikers nearby heard the victim's wife crying
out for help and used a cell phone to call park rangers for assistance.
A National Park Service statement said the couple had inadvertently surprised
the mother grizzly and her cubs, and in "an attempt to defend a perceived
threat to her cubs, the bear attacked and fatally wounded the man."
The victim's identity and hometown have been withheld pending notification of
other family members.
The bears involved in Wednesday's encounter remained at large for the time
being.
Authorities are still investigating the circumstances of the attack, but
initial information indicated the mother bear behaved normally in defending her
cubs and would not be killed as a result of her actions, park spokeswoman Linda
Miller said.
Attacks by bears are extremely rare. No visitors were injured by bears in
Yellowstone during all of last year, and Wednesday's incident marked the first
bear-caused human death in the park since 1986, the Park Service said.
But a mother grizzly killed one man and injured two other people in an unusual
night-time attack on sleeping campers just outside Yellowstone in Montana last
July. The bruin involved in that incident was later trapped and destroyed
because the attacks were considered to be unprovoked.
A bear warning sign is posted at Yellowstone's Wapiti Lake trailhead because it
is an access point to the Pelican Valley area known for significant bear
activity. No bear encounters had been reported along or near that trail this
season, the Park Service said.
(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Greg McCune)