Griz charges hunter in Gallatin Range; black bear attacks man inside Colorado home

Two recent incidents involving bears made headlines after close encounters with people.

One occurred in near Big Sky, Montana, and the other in Lake City, Colorado.

According to a press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, its staff responded to a reported encounter between a hunter and a grizzly bear on Saturday, Oct. 7.

The hunter was in the backcountry south of Hidden Lakes in the Gallatin Range when he saw a grizzly bear and two large cubs at close range. The hunter climbed a tree to avoid the bear, but the bear charged at the hunter. The hunter shot and injured the bear from the tree. The hunter stayed in the tree while the injured bear remained nearby.

The hunter called 911 and reported his location. FWP grizzly bear specialists, game wardens and a pilot responded in a helicopter. After they landed, FWP staff dispatched the injured bear and found the hunter, who was not injured.

FWP staff didn’t see any cubs or cub tracks from the air or ground. The area was flown multiple times during the event. The euthanized bear was confirmed to be an adult female.

This incident is still under investigation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Gallatin County Search and Rescue and the Custer Gallatin National Forest assisted FWP in responding to the incident.

In Colorado, state Parks and Wildlife responded on the night of Thursday, Oct. 3, when a 74-year-old man was attacked by a black bear inside his home on the north side of Lake City in Hinsdale County after the bear and her three cubs opened a partially cracked sliding glass door and entered the home.

The attack occurred at roughly 8:30 p.m. The residents in the home were startled when they heard a loud crash and saw the bears entering through the door.

The victim of the attack grabbed a chair from the kitchen and attempted to direct the adult bear out the door. But the bear charged the man, knocking him into a wall before it briefly stood over him. The bear swiped at the man, who incurred significant wounds from being clawed, including wounds to the head, neck, both arms, lower abdomen, shoulder and calf.

Emergency medical personnel were able to treat the victim’s wounds on the scene, and the victim declined to be transported to the hospital.

“It’s certainly lucky we didn’t have a fatality, because it was close,” said CPW wildlife officer Lucas Martin. 

When law enforcement and medical personnel arrived, the sow’s three cubs were still inside the home despite attempts by the residents to haze the bears away. At that time, the residents had escaped the bears by locking themselves in a bedroom. A Hinsdale County Sheriff’s Deputy was eventually able to haze the cubs out of the home.

Two CPW District Wildlife Managers also responded. The sow and all three cubs climbed trees outside the home, and after preliminary confirmation of their involvement in the attack, all four bears involved were subsequently euthanized.

The bears were sent to CPW’s health lab in Fort Collins to be tested for disease and to undergo a full necropsy.

“There was no question that these were the bears involved,” said CPW Area Wildlife Manager Brandon Diamond. “It’s a terrible set of circumstances that, unfortunately, our District Wildlife Managers are routinely faced with. Clearly, these bears were highly habituated and were willing to enter an occupied house with the residents sitting just feet away. When a bear reaches this level of human habituation, clearly a lot of interaction with people has already happened, and unless communities are working with us collaboratively and communicating issues, we have no opportunity to intervene.”

Previous to Friday night’s attack, CPW had only received eight official reports of bear activity in Hinsdale County so far in 2024. However, it is common for bears to be in and around Lake City, and CPW officers have been aware of chatter on social media related to bears getting into unoccupied homes and garages in the area throughout the late summer and early fall. Some of those reports were of sow bears with cubs. 

Lake City is located a bit northeast of Telluride in southwest Colorado.

“When we have multiple sows with multiple cubs in town and conflict is occurring based on the ongoing availability of human food sources, it creates a very complex situation to mitigate,” said Martin. “Unfortunately, cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people.” 

This is the first reported bear attack in Colorado in 2024, compared with six reports in 2023. There have been 96 reported bear attacks on humans in Colorado dating back to 1960.

Both agencies stressed the importance of the public doing their part to remove attractants and food sources that bring bears close to human-occupied spaces.

They also urged hunters to be cautious, carry bear spray and be aware that elk calls and cover scents can attract bears.

For more information and resources on being safe in bear country, click https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/bear.