BROWN BEAR ATTACKS: VICTIMS, DETAILS, AVOIDANCE, SURVIVAL

BROWN BEAR ATTACKS

On average bears kills two or three people and injure one or two dozen a year in North America, with these numbers equally divided among brown bears and more numerous black bears. About twenty people have been killed in the past century at Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. The vast majority of bear attacks result from mother bears defending their cubs. There have been a number of attacks by bears encountering people at garbage dumps. In 1974, a photographer was killed in Alaska after pitching his tent to close to a frequently used bear trail.

Dru Sefton of the Newhouse News Service wrote: In August 2000, “a Calgary, Alberta, a man was mauled by a grizzly in the Kananaskis Country of Canada’s Rockies. It was the second incident in 12 hours; those were the first attacks there in 22 years. In September, attacks have been reported in Hoonah, Alaska; Anchorage; McLeod Lake , British Columbia; and Yellowstone National Park. [Source: Dru Sefton, Newhouse News Service, Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 1, 2000]

Statistics on bear attacks are difficult to compile. Many happen in remote wilderness and go unreported. University of Calgary environmental scientist Stephen Herrero, author of " Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance," estimated that on average, bears kill three people and seriously injure between five and 15 annually in North America. "Overall the injury rates are very low considering the millions of interactions that occur each year," he added. But in August, Herrero told the Calgary Herald that the number of bear attacks this year is among the highest since biologists began keeping records 28 years ago. Specific numbers were unavailable.

According to one report on bear attacks: Numbers of human–bear incidents have increased recently in Europe and North America, because of increasing bear abundance and growing numbers of people engaging in outdoor activities, hunting and inappropriate human behavior in bear country (Penteriani et al. 2016, Smith and Herrero 2018, Støen et al. 2018). However, some bears in North America have demonstrated predatory behavior (Graf et al. 1992, Shelton 1994). In Scandinavia, the number of people injured or killed annually by bears increased with the growing bear population size during the last four decades, but this was true only for hunters, i.e. the increase in the bear population size did not correlate with incidents affecting unarmed people. [Source: “Human injuries and fatalities caused by brown bears in Russia, 1932–2017" by Svitlana Kudrenko, Andrés Ordiz, Svetlana L. Barysheva, Leonid Baskin, Jon E. Swenson, Open Access, February 3 2020 bioone.org/journals/wildlife-biology/

Sometimes brown bears stalk humans, kill them and eat them. But the behavior is extremely rare. Usually when a bear kills a person it doesn't eat him. Most bears that eat people are disruptive ones that have a "history of habituation and food conditioning" (been feed by humans and then had the food supply cut off). In May 1998, a hiker in Glacier National Park in the United States was chased several hundred yards down a hill and killed by a family of bears that ate the hiker. Rangers discovered the partly consumed body.

Brown Bears Attacking Humans

Bear attack deterrent spray

Attacking bears do no rise on their hind legs, bear their the teeth and hug their victims to death as is sometimes seen in the movies. Instead they charge on all fours with their ears pinned back and bite or slash their victims in the neck or the head or some other place. They are very strong and can easily kill a person if that is their intention.

Describing a brown charge, Douglas Chadwick wrote in National Geographic, "The bear stepped out from behind a boulder. I had a ring of pale fur circling its chest and muscle-humped shoulders. I shrank back; I caught my movements. I stood exposed. The beast surged towards me and reared up to work over my scent with a head the size of mine...Then it left."

One rangers who was pulled out of a tree by an angry sow said that while he was lying underneath the attacking bear he considered playing dead but instead hit and cussed at the bear, who eventually gave up and fled.

Describing a bear charge, a bear researcher told National Geographic, "The bear rushed down a hill at us, huffing as he came. We didn't have a gun, but I was a carrying a spray can of red pepper. I got him in the face with a stream of it when he was 15 feet away or so. It slowed him down, and he crashed into some branches. He recovered after thrashing around and took me to the ground. There he gave me a sort of light bite to the stomach. In the meantime I'm yelling and emptying everything the spray can right in his face. Nose, Eyes. He broke off and ran, shaking and rubbing his head."

How to Avoid Bear Attacks

Yellowstone National Park is bear country. There, park officials strongly encourage hikers to: 1) travel in groups of three or more; 2) carry bear spray which they know how to use and can easily grab; and 3) make noise or wear bells or some other noise maker so they don't accidentally startle a bear. If you encounter a bear do not run. Back away slowly. The park requires that people stay at least 100 yards from bears and wolves, and at least 25 yards from other large animals. [Source: CNN]

“If you come across a bear, never push a slower friend down … even if you feel the friendship has run its course,” the U.S. National Park Service wrote in a tweet in 2023. The tweet garnered more than 17,000 retweets and over 146,000 likes within a few days. Brooke Baitinger wrote in the Sacramento Bee: “In fact, if you do come face-to-face with a bear, you really shouldn’t run at all. That includes pushing your slower friend toward the bear to make a break for it. That’s because they’ll act like dogs and chase fleeing animals. You also don’t want them to see you as a prey animal. Here’s what you should do instead, according to the National Park Service:

Identify Yourself as a Human and Not a Prey Animal by talking calmly, and stay put. Slowly wave your arms. The bear might come closer or stand up on its back legs to get a better look or to smell you, which is usually a sign of curiosity and not aggression. Walk away slowly: Move sideways so you appear less threatening to the bear. This also lets you keep an eye out. [Source: Brooke Baitinger, Sacramento Bee, March 2, 2023]

Don’t Scream or Make Any Loud or High-pitched Noises since the bear might think it’s the sound of a prey animal. Screaming could trigger an attack. Pick up smaller children. Don’t let kids run away from a bear. It could think they’re small prey. Also, make yourself look as big as possible, including moving to higher ground if you can. Don’t make any sudden movements. Dogs have pluses and minuses. On one hand they can alert you to a bear's presence and drive it off. On the other hand dogs can also also startle bears, annoy and aggravate them and be seen as prey.

Stay Calm and remember that most bears do not want to attack you; they usually just want to be left alone. Talk slowly and with a low voice to the bear. Bears might bluff to avoid an encounter by charging and turning away at the last second.

Don’t Try Climbing a Tree. Black bears and grizzlies can both climb trees. Don’t drop your bag: A bag on your back can keep a bear from accessing food, and it can provide protection. If a bear attacks you deploy spray if you have it or strike the animal with anything: a rock, stick or hiking pole. Some say you should try to jab its eyes or punch it in the nose as you are told to do with sharks.

Hike in Groups: A group is noisier and smellier, the National Park Service said. Bears like to keep their distance from groups of people. Hikers in bear country are encouraged to keep their distance, especially with a mother and her cubs. Alaskan bear expert Larry Aumiller, who spends much of time escorting tourist around bears, told Smithsonian, "Sometimes it can get a little complicated depending on things like how many people we have, how loud or aggressive they are, which bears are present that day and how they're getting along with each other. If we seem to be making a bear nervous, I get the group to act more submissive. We may move closer together, which make the group's size appear less formidable. We stop making noise, we may sit down, we say even slowly move away. If, on the other hand, a bear starts acting assertive, we may do the opposite—spread out and stand up on logs or rocks, talk loudly, maybe even wave our arms around. Every interaction is different and it's up to us to read the people and the bears, and respond appropriately to each other."

One Russian guide told the New York Times, "Never look the bear on the eyes. And don't move. Just yell Russia swear words at it." If you surprise and are attacked by a brown bear some advise you to play dead since most of the time the bear is defending itself. If it stalks you fight back and don’t make yourself easy pray. In some places hikers carry pepper spray to ward off bears. Pepper spray may work in a close encounter.The jury is out on whether this really works. Some say pepper spray may actually attract bears. If sprayed at a campsite bears can get a whiff of it a quarter of a mile away.

Troublesome grizzly bears are driven away by loud yelling, firing shotgun blanks, throwing bean bags, igniting flares, or firing rubber bullets. Other measures employed to keep bears away include electric fencing around garbage sites, replacing conventional trash cans with bear-proof models and educating people on how to keep their trash stored out of harms way. In the United States, troublesome grizzly bears are driven away by chasing them with specially trained Finnish dogs and dealt with using the three-strikes-your-out policy in which troublemakers are caught and taken to a wilderness area. If they show up two more times and cause trouble they are killed.

Brown Bear Attacks in Romania

Romania has more brown bears than anywhere else in Europe so it is not surprising that it is well-known for bear attacks. In the early 1990s, a schoolteacher was reportedly eaten after she tried take a short cut home from school one day. Because firearms have traditionally been in short supply in the countryside, farmers there have had to beat bears off with pitchforks, staffs and machetes. The bears often kill livestock — particularly pigs, sheep, lambs, and chickens — and are especially dangerous when they are eating. Farmers own powerful, loud-barking dogs to protect their animals from bear attacks. [Source: Rick Bass, Men's Journal, April 1994]

One farmer told journalist Rick Bass that one bear used to like to hide in the woods near his farm and wait for the farmer and his dog to lead sheep into their pastures in the morning. When the farmer was a couple hundreds meters away, the bear would leap out from its hiding place, jump over a fence, grab and pig and run back to the woods.

When one farmer was asked by Bass how he felt about bear raids on his livestock, he responded, "Sometimes we go into the bear's woods to take his berries. It is only fair that sometimes he comes and takes a sheep or a pig. As long as we do not take too many berries, and he does not take too many sheep, it is fair."

A widow told Dan Dimancescu of National Geographic in the 1960s a horrible story about how her husband armed with an ax attempted to prevent a bear from mauling his sheep. "When his son arrived with a rifle," the American wrote in his diary, "the bear had fled; the father lay dying, his face unrecognizable. Without hesitation, the son trained the gun downward and fired." Dimancescu saw one bear at his camp and later saw the skeletons of two cows. [Source: Dan Dimancescu, National Geographic June 1969]

Brown Bear Carnage in Romanian Forest

In October 2004, the BBC reported: “ A brown bear attacked and killed one person and mauled seven others in a forest in Romania's Transylvania region before being shot dead by hunters. Believed to be a she-bear, the animal attacked and injured five people out picking mushrooms and fell on three others in another part of the woods. The animal also attacked an ambulance sent to the scene of the first attack. Armed police and hunters were sent into the woods near Brasov and the city's mayor declared a state of emergency. [Source: BBC, October 16, 2004 |+|]

“Hunters said the bear had been foraging for food when it came upon the mushroom-pickers who were too shocked to escape. All five received "multiple, serious wounds" and were taken to hospital in a critical condition, said Dr Liviu Stelea, who treated victims at the scene. Half-an-hour after the first victims were rescued, emergency services were called to the edge of the forest where another attack had left one man dead and two badly injured. One of the hunters who finally tracked down and killed the animal was also slightly injured by the bear before it was shot. |+|

“Romania has thousands of brown bears living in the wild and they often come close to Brasov, which is surrounded by large forested areas in the Carpathian Mountains. It is illegal to hunt them without a permit but bear attacks have been rare. Local officials quoted by The Associated Press said this was the worst such incident in many years in Romania. In July, two Romanians were seriously injured in after three hungry bears attacked them as they emerged from a block of houses in a Brasov suburb.” |+|

Bear Kills Jogger in Italy — Same Bear Attacked Others in 2020

In April 2023, a bear that killed a jogger in the Alps region of Italy. The same bear had attacked two other people in 2020. CBS News reported: Andrea Papi, 26, was found dead after going for a run in the mountainous region of Trentino-Alto Adige. His family raised the alarm when he failed to return and a search team found his body overnight. He had suffered deep wounds to the neck, arms and chest and an autopsy concluded he had been attacked by a bear. [Source: CBSNews, April 14, 2023]

Local authorities asked for the animal to be euthanized after the attack but Italian news agency Ansa reported Friday that the order to kill the bear had been suspended. Authorities had also applied for the bear to be put down in 2020, when it attacked a father and son near the same area, Reuters reported, but a court ruling overturned the decision. Prosecutors said DNA samples taken after last week's attack matched a 17-year-old female bear identified as "JJ4," Reuters reported. The bear wears a GPS radio collar that tracks its movements, but the monitoring page for the animal said there was a faulty signal from its collar before the fatal attack, Reuters reported.

In March, a man was attacked by a bear in the same region, launching a debate on the dangers posed by the animals, which were reintroduced there between 1996 and 2004. Annamaria Procacci, a former ecologist deputy who now works with the animal welfare group ENPA, denounced the lack of precautions taken by local officials.

Bears normally kept their distance from people, she argued. The local authority had to ensure that people were kept away from zones where female bears were raising their cubs, she added. In 2020, a brown bear was caught on camera climbing onto a balcony of an apartment building in the northern Italian city of Calliano.

Grizzly Bear Attacks in British Columbia

In September 2000, a 70-year-old hunter was killed by a grizzly bear in northern British Columbia. Helen Plischke and Frank Luba wrote in The Province: “Max Tylee has hunted and trapped almost all his 70 years, but not even his bush smarts could keep him safe from a rampaging grizzly. Tylee was rushed to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster with critical head wounds after he was mauled by a grizzly bear not far from the McLeod Lake reserve, near Mackenzie in northern B.C. "The skin (on his head) was pulled back and the forehead was pulled back over his eyes," said Tylee's son-in-law, Alec Chingee. It's suspected the grizzly's teeth punctured Tylee's skull. The elderly man also had teeth marks on his hands and ear. [Source: Helen Plischke and Frank Luba, The Province September 5, 2000 /]

“The attack happened when Tylee and his wife, Josie, 63, went moose hunting Sunday afternoon along the Phillips Forest service road. They stopped near the 16-kilometre mark, where Max left the truck and walked into the bush, said his daughter, Georgina Chingee, 46. When Josie, waiting in the truck, heard Max yelling, she grabbed their rifle and headed for the bush. "I looked back for him and he wasn't there," said Josie. "I kept calling for him . . . The grizzly bear came out and ran toward me. I hightailed it back to the truck." When the bear left, she called: "Honey, honey, where are you? But it was totally silent." Josie sped down the logging road for help but 90 minutes passed before she could return with help. Tylee was lying on the road and the bear was gone.

In October 2014, a 56-year-old man was mauled by a grizzly bear and shot by his friend while hunting near Fernie, British Columbia. Negar Mojtahedi of the Global News wrote: “Early Sunday morning, conservation officers and emergency crews responded to reports of grizzly bear attack in the Elk Valley. “This is a somewhat remote area and there’s no history with this bear,” said Sgt. Cam Schley, a conservation officer from Cranbrook. The victim’s hunting partner shot and killed the 400 pound male grizzly bear. In the process, he accidentally shot his friend. His injuries are the result of being mauled by the animal and from gunfire. The victim’s hunting partner was not injured by the grizzly bear. “The two men were not hunting grizzly bears. [Source: Negar Mojtahedim Global News, October 13, 2014 +++]

““It’s not common to encounter a grizzly in that close a range. Attacks are very rare,” said Sgt. Schley. On July 5, 2013 a hiking trail in Fernie was closed after two men were attacked by a grizzly bear. Both men were hiking on the Mount Proctor Trail when the animal charged and attacked them. One hiker discharged pepper spray and the other shot at it before the female grizzly bear fled into the bushes with her cub. In September 2013, a 54-year-old Calgary business man who had been hunting sheep in southern Alberta’s Kananaskis Country was found dead after a fatal bear attack. +++

“In the most recent Fernie grizzly attack, the bear is being frozen and will be examined by conservation officers over the next few days. David Karn, a spokesman for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment, says the victim was in stable condition when he left the area. He is currently at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary and is now believed to be in critical condition.” +++

Couple Killed by a Grizzly at Banff National Park

In September 2023, two people were killed by a grizzly bear in Alberta's Banff National Park — the first deaths from a grizzly bear at the park in decades. It involved a bear that was not collared, tagged or previously known to park staff. The couple seemed to have everything in order and have done everything right. They had hiking and camping permits and there were no active bear warning at the time incident, Canadian park officials said. Park staff found two cans of bear spray at the scene and that the individuals' food had been hung appropriately to avoid attracting animals, [Source: Reuters, October 4, 2023]

The victims, Doug Inglis and Jenny Gusse, both 62, and their dog, were on a week-long backpacking trip near the Red Deer River valley, in the northeast section of Banff, when the attack happened.The attack was a surprise encounter, and the couple had been on day five of their trip. The bear spray was used and there were signs they had tried to scare the bear off.

Parks Canada was alerted about the bear attack and the response team shot and killed the animal when it charged at them. Officials, through a necropsy, determined the bear to be a non-lactating older female, estimated to be over 25 years old. The bear was in fair condition but had less than normal body fat for this time of year and had bad teeth. "Parks Canada does not believe another bear was involved at this time," it said, adding that an area closure has been put in place out of an abundance of caution.

There are about 60 grizzly bears in Banff National Park. Bear sightings increase during autumn as they become more active searching for food ahead of hibernating in the cold winter months. Banff National Park, which attracts more than four million tourists every year, is home to both grizzly and black bears. Between 2012 and 2022 there were three recorded non-fatal, contact encounters between humans and grizzly in the park. Parks Canada advises hikers in bear country to always carry bear spray and a noise-maker, and to be aware of bear signs, especially in wildlife travel corridors.

The final text message left by the victim contained just three words: “Bear attack bad.” Leyland Cecco wrote in The Guardian: Colin Inglis, Doug’s uncle, told the Canadian Press the couple had texted him at 4.52pm on the day of the attack to say they had been delayed but were at camp. They likely ate dinner, ensured their food was hung a safe distance and retreated into their tent to read – a familiar routine. Just a few hours later, Colin Inglis got a phone call from Garmin, the company that operates the satellite device used by the couple, telling him an SOS had been activated. Garmin read him the three-word message. “‘Bear attack bad’ means bad things,” said Colin Inglis. “Something is probably happening right then that is terrifying.” [Source: Leyland Cecco, The Guardian, October 5, 2023]

Parks Canada also received an alert and immediately dispatched its wildlife human attack response team, an armed unit trained to handle worst-case scenarios. Poor weather conditions in the mountains prevented the team from using a helicopter. Under the cover of darkness, the team moved by foot through the valley. They arrived at the location of the distress call after midnight and found two people and their dog, all dead. As they scoured the area, the team was charged by a grizzly. The bear was shot and killed. A subsequent necropsy revealed a bear at the tail end of her life, nearly 25 years old. Her teeth were in poor condition and her fat stores were lower than normal. The couple’s food cache was hung safely at a distance from their tent.

While the response team is trained in wildlife attack site investigation and forensics, Parks Canada said it would not speculate on what caused the attack. “The incident happened in a remote wilderness location and there were no witnesses,” the agency said. The couple, veterans of the Canadian hinterlands, were well-prepared for their weeklong trip. “But bears are unpredictable,” said Colin Inglis. “This is a rogue bear. This is something unusual that has happened.”

The family believes the couple were inside their tent, likely reading, when the attack happened. Tris, their seven-year-old dog, would have been snuggled up next to them. The Parks Canada team found the tent had been crushed with their e-readers inside. But the couple were found outside the tent; neither was wearing boots. At least one canister of bear spray had been emptied and there was evidence they had tried to scare off the bear. “There was a struggle, and the struggle didn’t stay in one place. But, in the end, both bodies were back together,” said Colin Inglis. “They were reconnected. That’s who they were. They were together in life, always.”

Grizzly Bear Attacks at Yellowstone

In July 2011, 57-year-old Brian Matayoshi from California, died in Yellowstone National Park after inadvertently walking into a grizzly bear and her cubs. His wife Marilyn was grabbed by her backpack by the bear, but she was not harmed. It was the first fatal grizzly attack inside Yellowstone in 25 years. The hiker was with his wife when he "surprised" the sow, which killed him "in an attempt to defend a perceived threat to her cubs," the National Park Service said in a statement. A group of hikers heard the wife's cries and used a cell phone to call 911. Park Rangers responded but did not kill the mother grizzly because they determined it was the female protecting its cubs. But the park did kill a four-year-old male grizzly a few weeks later after that 117 kilograms (258 pounds) animal charged — but did not injure — a man sitting on a hiking trail near Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone National Park is home to more than 600 bears, which can be as large as 272 kilograms (600 pounds) [Source: Daily Mail, July 8, 2011]

A few weeks later another man was killed by a grizzly at Yellowstone. The BBC reported: “The body of John Wallace, 59, from Michigan, was found on along the Mary Mountain Trail. Dan Wenk, a park superintendent, said there were no witnesses to the attack. "We think we provide visitors with pretty good knowledge and techniques to keep them safe in the backcountry," said Mr Wenk. "Unfortunately, in this case it didn't happen that way." “Park rangers are setting traps to capture and kill the animal that attacked the Michigan man. The bear that killed him is believed to be a different animal to the one that killed the Californian hiker. The bear that killed the Michigan man remains at large a couple of months after the attack. [Source: BBC, August 30, 2011]

In August 2015, a grizzly bear at Yellowstone was euthanized after an autopsy of a hiker confirmed that the bear killed him. CNN reported: Autopsy results confirmed that Lance Crosby, 63, died as a result of traumatic injuries sustained from a grizzly bear attack, park officials said. Additional evidence also pointed to the female bear as his attacker, they said. The decision to kill the mother bear was unusual in that she had two cubs. "An important fact in the decision to euthanize the bear was that a significant portion of the (hiker's) body was consumed and cached with the intent to return for further feeding," the park said in a media statement. "Normal defensive attacks by female bears defending their young do not involve consumption of the victim's body." [Source: Katia Hetter, CNN, August 14, 2015]

The grizzly was captured shortly after park rangers found Crosby's body on August 7. A DNA analysis confirmed her hair was found near the body. The park detailed additional evidence as well: The adult bear and two cubs were at the attack site when park rangers found Crosby's body, a female bear tracks and her cubs' tracks were found near the body, and puncture wounds on the victim were consistent with the captured female grizzly's bite. The two cubs were captured and transferred to the Toledo Zoo. Crosby was a long-term seasonal employee of Medcor, a company that operates three urgent-care clinics in Yellowstone. An experienced hiker, he had worked and lived in Yellowstone for five seasons, the park said. He was reported missing when he did not report for work. A park ranger found his body in a popular off-trail area less than a mile from Elephant Back Loop Trail, an area he was known to frequent.

Deadly encounters between bears and humans are rare in Yellowstone. From 1872 to 2011, black and grizzly bears killed seven people in the park, according to its website. And from 2007 to 2013, wildlife killed only six people in the entire national park system, according to the National Park Service. The grizzly bear population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem was estimated to be between 674 and 839 in 2014, according to the National Park Service.

A Death in Yellowstone — On the trail of a killer grizzly bear (April 2, 2012) is a lengthy account by Jennifer Grose in Slate of how wildlife investigators found a killer grizzly in Yellowstone and the history of grizzly attacks in the park. slate.com.

Details of July 2011 Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Attack

On the first attack in July 2011, Associated Press reported: Recordings of 911 calls from hikers who came upon a fatal bear mauling in Yellowstone National Park reveal a harrowing scene in which they heard a bear's roar and a couple screaming before the man went silent and the woman continued to yell for help. "It sounded like they were trying to scare the bear," an unidentified male hiker told the 911 dispatcher. "I heard a man's voice making loud, like, um, like animal noises. It sounded like he was trying to scare the bear and I heard a woman screaming. It sounded like she was scared." A short time later, another caller who identified himself as a trauma surgeon called and said he was just a few hundred yards from the scene. "Did you hear what they were saying? Did they say they were attacked or just yelling for help?" the dispatcher asked. "No. They were just yelling for help. And all I can here is the lady's voice now. There was a man as well, so I'm worried that the man may be injured," the caller said. [Source: Matthew Brown, Associated Press, September 20, 2011]

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, park officials said the Matayoshis responded correctly when they encountered the bear along the park's popular Wapiti Lake Trailhead. But following a two-month investigation, bear researchers and wildlife agents concluded the couple's harried, 173-yard retreat after they encountered the bear may have played a role. "What possibly began as an attempt by the bear to assess the Matayoshis' activities became a sustained pursuit of them as they fled running and yelling on the trail," the investigation team report said.

The couple was not carrying bear spray, mace-like canisters of pressurized pepper spray that park officials advise hikers to carry for self-defense. The attack took place about 1½ miles from the park's popular Wapiti Lake picnic ground, where the Matayoshis had set out for a hike at about 8:30 a.m. after arriving in the park a day earlier, according to the investigators' report. The couple first spied the mother grizzly with her two cubs just after 10 a.m., from a vantage point along the trail. It was the Matayoshis fourth visit to the park, but the first in which they had seen any bears. As the bears were digging and grazing in an open meadow, the couple stopped and took pictures from a distance of several hundred yards, then hiked on after deciding the animals were not near the trail.

After another half mile, they then turned back because they were annoyed by mosquitoes, and soon after saw a large bear off the trail about 100 yards away. They turned and started heading for a patch of nearby trees when Marylyn Matayoshi "saw the bear's head pop up." "She started coming at us and Brian said 'Run.' We were running down the trail," Marylyn Matayoshi told investigators. She heard her husband yell and turned to see the sow "hit him," with the cubs trailing behind their mother and growling.

After killing the husband, the bear tugged at Marylyn Matayoshi's backpack, then released her and fled. "She walked over to her husband and attempted to use a tourniquet on Brian's leg and heard a long breath escape from Brian," the report said. She tried to call 911 for help — her cellphone log showed she tried 21 times — but never got through. She started back down the trail several times, but kept turning back out of fear that she would encounter the bears again. Eventually she walked to the edge of the meadow where the bear charged from and was found by rangers who had been alerted to the attack by other hikers.

In investigation revealed that the couple’s screaming and running may have 'provoked' the fatal grizzly attack. The BBC reported: The grizzly bear had no history of aggressive behaviour with park visitors Hikers said they heard a woman's screams and a man making animal noises, possibly to scare away the animal. Park authorities had previously thought the couple reacted correctly when they encountered the mother bear with her cubs on the Wapiti Lake Trailhead, a popular Yellowstone route. But after an investigation, bear researchers and wildlife agents say the pair's running and screaming helped spur the bear into attacking. "What possibly began as an attempt by the bear to assess the Matayoshis' activities became a sustained pursuit of them as they fled running and yelling on the trail," the investigation team report said. Park officials advise hikers to carry pressurised pepper spray with them for self-defence from bears, but the couple were not carrying any. [Source: BBC, September 21, 2011]

Bear Attacks in the Wyoming and Montana

In May, 2024, Bear spray set off by an attacking bear appears to have save the life of a man who was attacked by a grizzly bear in Grand Teton National Park. Pete Thomas wrote in FTW Outdoors: The 35-year-old visitor from Massachusetts had encountered a grizzly bear cub, which ran off, causing the man to reach for his bear spray. But momma bear attacked before the man could activate the spray. However, according to the Cowboy State Daily, the bear chomped on the man’s bear spray canister, causing it to burst in the bruin’s face. Momma bear and her cub subsequently ran off. The man was expected to fully recover. The incident occurred near the park’s Signal Mountain Summit Road. [Source: Pete Thomas, FTW Outdoors, May 24, 2024]

According to a news release from the National Park Service, the 35-year-old male park visitor was "seriously injured by a bear". Park rangers and search and rescue personnel provided emergency medical care at the scene before airlifting the man to an ambulance which transported him to hospital. "Law enforcement rangers and park biologists believe the incident was a surprise encounter with two grizzly bears, with one of the bears contacting and injuring the visitor," states the report.

In October 2022, a college wrestler mauled after saving teammate from grizzly bear attack in Wyoming. Jason Owens wrote in Yahoo Sports: Both survived, and two of their teammates helped them to safety before emergency responders transported them to nearby hospitals. The attack took place on Saturday in Wyoming's Shoshone National Forest near the Montana border and Yellowstone National Park. Kendell Cummings and Brady Lowry — wrestlers from nearby Northwest College — were hiking in the woods while searching for antlers shed by deer and elk. That's when they say a grizzly bear surprised them out of the trees and attacked Lowry. [Source: Jason Owens, Yahoo Sports, October 20, 2022]

The bear grabbed hold of Lowry's arm and was “biting my back, my butt, my shoulder,” he told the Deseret News. Cummings attempted to distract the bear by throwing things and yelling, then tried to pull the bear away from his teammate. “I didn’t want to lose my friend," Cummings told the News. "It was bad. There was a big ol’ bear on top of him. I could have run and potentially lost a friend, or get him off and save him." That's when the bear turned its focus on Cummings. "It knocked me onto the ground and then, with its head, pushed me on the ground all the way up against the trees and then kind of pinned me up there and it was attacking me," Cummings told ABC News on Wednesday. "I was putting my hands in its mouth and stuff, so it wouldn't be chewing on my neck and everything."

Cummings said the the bear eventually relented and walked away, only to circle back for a second attack. Thats when it bit down on his head. "I could hear when his teeth would hit my skull, I could feel when he'd bite down on my bones and they'd kind of crunch," Cummings said. The bear then "went away again for whatever reason," according to Cummings. Local wildlife officials described the attack to the Deseret News as "a sudden, surprise encounter with a grizzly bear.”

At that point, the attack was over, and Lowry shifted his focus to getting both off the mountain to safety. Lowry, not sure at that point if Cummings would survive, told the Deseret News that he climbed up a ridge to find cell service and called 911.

Two of their teammates, August Harrison and Orrin Jackson, were also on the outing and eventually connected with their injured friends. They helped them down the mountain and coordinated with emergency dispatchers to meet at the trailhead roughly six miles away. Harrison described Cummings as "a bloody mess" when he first saw him. "His head was painted red everywhere,” he told the News. He said that he and Jackson took turns carrying Cummings down the mountain and that Cummings was eventually able to walk part of the way. Lowry was able to walk on his own. When they reached the trailhead, emergency responders flew Cummings to Billings Clinic Hospital in Montana.

Cummings underwent multiple surgeries to treat lacerations to his head and face. Lowry, who was transported to a hospital via ambulance, suffered a compound fracture of his left arm. Their wrestling coach Jim Zeigler told the Deseret News that both sustained puncture wounds, cuts and bruises. Cummings came out of surgery with 60 staples on his face and head. He'd recovered from his injuries enough to provide his account of the attack to ABC News. Lowry's father Dallas told KSLTV from the hospital that Cummings saved his son's life. Cummings is a sophomore who competes at 141 pounds. Lowry is a redshirt sophomore who competes at 149 pounds.

Hunter Killed by Grizzly Bear in Idaho

In September 2011, a bear hunter was killed by a wounded grizzly after trying to lure it away from another hunter — part of the group that shot the bear — on the Idaho-Montana border. Global Post reported: “Steve Stevenson, 39, a father of two, was the third person to be killed by a grizzly bear in the U.S. since July. Stevenson and Ty Bell, 20, the man he saved by distracting the bear were part of a four-man hunting party from of Winnemucca, Nevada, tracking black bears in the mountains. One of the group had already shot the bear when it attacked. The authorities said the hunters had thought the animal was a black bear when they wounded it — grizzly bears are a protected species in the U.S., according to a report in the Daily News. [Source: Global Post, September 18, 2011]

Stephenson and Bell had waited until they thought the bear was dead before tracking it into some thick cover. "They both shot it and it kept coming," Stevenson's mother, Janet Price, told the AP. "Steve yelled at it to try and distract it, and it swung around and took him down. It's what my son would have done automatically, for anybody." Bell reportedly shot the bear several times and killed it — but only after it had attacked Stevenson, authorities said.

Price told authorities that her son and Bell were licensed to shoot black bears and were aware that there were grizzly in the area. Police said hunters often confuse the two species. "Anytime you have a wounded animal it can be dangerous," John Fraley, spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, told the AP. "But usually, grizzlies are considered more aggressive than black bears." Fraley estimated the bear’s age at 6 to 8, based on its weight of 400 pounds. "That’s a good-sized grizzly bear," he said, adding that it was said the grizzly was one of about 45 living in that are of northwest Montana and northern Idaho.

Meanwhile, Idaho has updated its legislation to clarify that it is legal for people to harm grizzlies in the defense of themselves and others. According to politicalnews.me: The Delegation members note that these proposed changes to the law would be a drastic improvement over the current ESA regulations protecting the grizzly bear, which make it possible, but extremely difficult to legally take a grizzly bear in an act of self-defense or defense of another human. The new legislation states: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law . . . the provisions of this Act shall not apply with respect to the taking of any grizzly bear by an individual who demonstrates by a preponderance of the evidence that the individual carried out the taking as a result of 1) self-defense; 2) defense of another individual; or 3) a reasonable belief of imminent danger posed by the grizzly bear to any individual."

Brown Bears Attacks in Japan

In May 1999, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, a man was killed by a bear in Hokkaido. Two others were seriously injured. It was the first fatal bear attack in Japan in 9 years. The man was collecting wild plants when he was fatally attacked. When he did not return his family sent a search party out for him and found him dead. A short time later two women were out in the forest and presumably the same bear attacked them. They were not killed and are listed in serious condition in the hospital. Any animal is most dangerous when it loses it's fear of people. This bear was tracked down and killed. [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, May 9, 1999]

In October 2005, a zookeeper died after being mauled on his head and leg by a brown bear at the Fuji Safari Park in Shizuoka. Japan Today reported: “Tomohiro Tamura, 34, who had been in charge of bears for three and a half years at the zoo, was pronounced dead at a hospital from blood loss, the police said. He had suffered injuries to his head and left leg. [Source: Japan Today, October 25, 2005]

The Sankebetsu brown bear incident, also referred to as the Rokusensawa bear attack or the Tomamae brown bear incident was the worst bear attack in Japanese history, killing seven settlers in Rokusensawa, Sankebetsu, Tomamae, Rumoi, Hokkaido.The incident took place between December 9 and 14, 1915 after a large brown bear woke up from hibernation and repeatedly attacked several houses in the area. [Source: Wikipedia]

Bear Attacks in Russia

Bear attacks have long been a problem in Russia in years when their food supplies run low. In the most extreme case, 270 bears were reportedly killed in four villages in Irkutsk province in 1968. In 2010, a scorching summer left bears in Siberia so hungry that some began digging up human graves. [Source Alec Luhn, The Guardian, September 4, 2015]

There were several reported bear attacks in Russia's far east in the summer of 2014. According to the BBC "at least three people killed in different attacks blamed on a combination of factors connected to the region's volatile climate which can range from record high temperatures to flooding and freak snow and hailstorms. The Interfax news agency said that the animals are more hungry because nets have prevented salmon from swimming up rivers to spawn, leaving bears without regular food. [Source: BBC, May 13 2015]

In December 2003, a bear mauled a man to death in the Kronotsky wildlife reserve on Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The Kamchatka rescue service reported that one of the oldest workers of the reserve and well-known Kamchatka photographer and hunting specialist Vitaly Nikolayenko fell victim to a big bear 1.5 kilometers from the rangers' station. According to to RIA Novosti: “Nikolayenko was taking a photograph of the animal and failed to use the weapon he was carrying when the bear attacked him. The rescue workers brought the body to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. A total of about 600 Kamchatka bears live on the territory of the Kronotsky wildlife refuge but cases of attacks on man by beasts of prey are extremely rare. [Source: RIA Novosti, December 30, 2003]

During the spring the bears around Kurilskoye Lake emerge from hibernation "hungry, sex-starved and irritable" and wander through settlements on the lake as they approach the shore to fish. They often tear up gardens and root through garbage. Over the years more than 100 problem bears have been killed. In the summer of 1993 one pulled a camper from a tent and mauled him. Local residents later tracked and shot the bear. In 1996, the Japanese-American bear photographer Michio Hoshimo was pulled from his tent and eaten by a bear at Kronotsky Nature Reserve.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2025