The 68-year-old New Yorker is injured and hospitalized after being mauled by a grizzly bear while hiking in Wyoming
- Buffalo Senior Activated Personal Locator Beacon After Bear Attack
- Backpacker was flown from Wyoming to Montana for urgent medical care
- The man had bear spray, but a feral grizzly caught him before he could use it
- Yellowstone area, home to over 700 grizzly bears that have killed 8 people since 2010
A New York senior has been flown to hospital after being severely mauled by a grizzly bear while backpacking near Yellowstone National Park.
The unidentified 68-year-old from Buffalo was struck blind by the beast and was unable to use the bear spray he was carrying.
Luckily, he was able to trigger his personal locator beacon and mobilize rescuers to the remote Wyoming wilderness where he was stranded.
Sheriffs and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department have not released the man’s identity or his current medical condition.
A mother grizzly and her bear cubs hike through the Alaskan wilderness
Francs Peak, southeast of Yellowstone National Park, is a 13,000-foot peak
He is currently being treated at a hospital in Billings, Montana after being airlifted from the Francs Peak area by a US Air Force rescue coordination team.
The area around the 13,000-foot summit of Francs Peak in the Washakie Wilderness is a well-known grizzly bear habitat.
Grizzly bears tend not to threaten humans often—but when they do attack, encounters are rarely easy to endure
The Yellowstone region, which spans parts of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, is home to more than 700 grizzly bears.
Grizzly bears in this area have killed at least eight people since 2010.
Among them was backcountry leader Charles “Carl” Mock, who was mortally mauled by a 400-pound male grizzly while fishing alone at a favorite spot on Montana’s Madison River.
And in March, 40-year-old father of four, Craig Clouatre, was killed in a bear attack in the Six Mile Creek area of Paradise Valley in southern Montana.
Clouatre is survived by wife Jamie and their four children.
A US Air Force mountain rescue helicopter took the 68-year-old to a Montana hospital
More than 700 grizzly bears live in the region around Yellowstone National Park (pictured).
A crowdfunder for his family raised over $55,000 in just a few days.
Grizzlies are protected by federal law outside of Alaska.
Dense forests at higher elevations are a common home for bears, although dangerous encounters with humans are relatively rare.
Attacks have reportedly increased in recent decades as the grizzly population grows and more people move to rural areas near bear habitats.
Elected officials in the Yellowstone region are pushing to lift protections and allow grizzly hunting.
Officials near Yellowstone (pictured) have been pushing to allow grizzly hunting as populations swell
The news also followed reports that a 71-year-old woman from West Chester, Pennsylvania, was attacked when she accidentally approached a bison while she and her daughter were returning to their car in Yellowstone.
The woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the National Park Service, and was taken to a hospital in Cody, Wyoming.
Tourists were only recently allowed to return to Yellowstone after the park was devastated by record-breaking floods that permanently diverted rivers, undermined roads and bridges and inundated nearby towns in torrents of flowing water.
Park officials initially assumed the park would remain closed for months while they dealt with the damage, but then decided to open the park within two weeks of the flood waters receding.
During the floods and in the days that followed, park officials warned people to remain extra vigilant for wild animals that may have been displaced by the water.