Fisherman escapes grizz attack

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

By Benjamin R. Bombard

By the luck of the draw, or rather the lack thereof, a fisherman survived an attack by a grizzly bear last weekend.

Conditions conspired against two brothers out fishing as they hiked along the south fork of Fish Creek near Union Pass last Saturday, said Mark Gocke, Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman. For one, they were hiking up-wind, so their scent was trailing behind them. When they saw bear tracks on the trail, the men started making noise to alert any bears that might be around.  But the sound of the rushing river drowned their noise, and all of sudden there was a startled grizzly in the middle of the trail.

“It was a classic surprise [bear] encounter,” Gocke said.
The bear charged one of the men, who tried to pull a can of bear spray from his pants, but everything happened so quickly he was unable to use it. The bear knocked him down and bit him on the inside of the thigh. The bear also bit into the can of bear spray, which started spraying and scared the animal off. The man escaped the encounter with a couple of puncture wounds on his leg. He was treated and released from the Dubois Clinic the same day.

Gocke noted that reports of bear activity appear to be proliferating in southeastern Bridger-Teton National Forest and into Shoshone National Forest. Bears have been troubling livestock and getting into trash in the area. A troublesome bear was removed from Yellowstone National Park and sent to a zoo last week after rummaging through some tents and gnawing on a generator.

Meanwhile, the bears seem to be steering clear of Jackson, according to Gocke. He said that there were a number of bear sightings in and around town a month ago, but since then they’ve been absent. Gocke attributes the bears’ absence to the use of bear-resistant garbage bins and other bear deterrent efforts.

JHW FILE PHOTO
Grizzly bear


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