Grizzly bear injures hunter in Wyoming mountains
By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - A female grizzly bear with cubs attacked and injured a bow hunter in the mountains of western Wyoming not far from where a bear recently killed a Utah man conducting research for the U.S. Forest Service, authorities said Monday. The bow hunter was one of two people scoping for elk on Sunday in the Shoshone National Forest southeast of Yellowstone National Park when the grizzly sow approached an area where they were hidden and camouflaged, and charged when she saw movement, said Jason Hunter, regional wildlife supervisor with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The grizzly bit one hunter while the other hunter used bear spray to frighten it off after an attack that Hunter said was likely triggered by the unexpected presence of humans, which the sow may have perceived as a threat to her cubs. The hunter, whose name was not disclosed, was taken to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries, he said. The incident came just over a week after Wyoming authorities said a Utah man who disappeared earlier this month while conducting government research was killed by an attacking grizzly or black bear. The remains of Adam Stewart, 31, of Utah were found Sept. 12 in the Bridger-Teton National Forest between a campsite he had erected and a plot of vegetation he was researching for a regional Forest Service office. Hunter said wildlife managers collected blood and hair samples for DNA testing but may never know which type of bear was involved in the fatal mauling and what prompted it. "We may not ever know much else. The samples we gathered were exposed to the elements for who knows how long," he said. Tracks of adult bears and cubs were found near Stewart's body, as were deer carcasses and signs of a hollowed area on the ground where bears rest during the heat of the day. The adjacent forests where the two incidents took place are separated by the Continental Divide in a rugged mountainous region known as the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, where roughly 600 federally protected grizzlies roam. Fatal attacks are rare in Wyoming, which averages about two encounters a year in which humans are injured by bears, Hunter said. (Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Sandra Maler)
