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Published July 24, 2023 • read for 3 minutes
FILE – A bear trap from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is seen July 7, 2021 in Ovando, Mont. Authorities set similar traps on Saturday night, July 22, 2023 and Sunday night, July 23, to capture a grizzly with at least one cub that attacked and killed a female near West Yellowstone, Mont. Photo by Tom Bauer /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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WEST YELLOWSTONE, Montana (AP) — Authorities on Monday searched for a grizzly bear that attacked and killed a woman on a trail west of Yellowstone National Park along the Montana-Idaho border.
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The attack occurred Saturday morning just a few hundred yards from a trailhead and private campground. There was no sign that the bear, who was traveling with at least one cub, was trying to eat the victim, who appears to have been jogging when she was fatally mauled, said Morgan Jacobsen of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
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Authorities couldn’t say for sure if the victim was waylaid or if it was a chance encounter when she was traveling alone in a wooded area frequented by grizzlies and black bears.
A hiker found her body along the trail around 8 a.m. Saturday. The victim’s name has not been released. She was wearing running shoes and did not carry bear spray, a deterrent that wildlife experts recommend people take with them in bear areas.
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“This person was probably jogging along the trail one morning and then this happened,” Jacobsen said.
Tracks of a grizzly bear and at least one cub were found at the scene of the attack, which occurred near the Buttermilk Trailhead, eight miles west of West Yellowstone, a busy summer tourist town and gateway to the national park.
The popular hiking trail is also used by people ATVs and other off-road vehicles
Rangers issued an emergency closure on portions of the Custer Gallatin National Forest. It did not include Yellowstone National Park.
A trail camera captured an image of a grizzly bear with two cubs in the area on Saturday, but there have been no sightings since, Jacobsen said. Traps set for the bears on Saturday and Sunday evenings came empty and attempts to locate the bears from an airplane were unsuccessful.
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Authorities had not yet decided whether to set traps again Monday night or whether to kill or relocate the adult bear if captured, Jacobsen said.
As time passes, he added, trapping becomes less effective as the likelihood of capturing a bear that was not involved in the attack increases.
The grizzly bear population in the northern Rocky Mountains of the US has grown significantly in recent decades. Since 2010, grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone have killed at least nine people, but attacks remain relatively rare in the region, which attracts several million tourists each summer.
A backcountry guide was killed near West Yellowstone two years ago when he was mauled by a large grizzly bear that conservationists say was likely defending a nearby moose carcass. And last year, a hiker was killed north of Yellowstone Park during a suspected grizzly encounter in a remote area of the Absaroka Mountains south of Livingston, Montana.
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Encounters with humans can also be deadly for bears: A five-year-old female grizzly in Glacier National Park was euthanized last week after officials said she had become accustomed to eating food from campgrounds and became increasingly aggressive.
Grizzly bears are protected by federal law outside of Alaska. Elected officials in the Yellowstone region are pushing to lift protections and allow grizzly hunting.
State officials last week warned visitors and residents of grizzly bear sightings across the state, “particularly in areas between the Northern Continental Divide and the Greater Yellowstone ecosystems.”
They begged campers and visiting parks to bring bear spray, store their food outside and take care of their trash.
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For more AP coverage of bears:
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