Bear, possibly a grizzly, attacks hiker in Yellowstone National Park

A hiker who was attacked by a bear – probably a Grizzli – in Yellowstone National Park this week was released from the hospital.

The 29 -year -old man had hiking alone on the distant trail from Lake Turbid when he apparently surprised the bear, according to park officials. While trying to use Bear Spray, he underwent “important but non -fatal injuries to his chest and left arm,” said officials.

The doctors of the National Park Service responded to the scene, and the victim was able to walk with them at the start of the path, where he was loaded in an ambulance and taken to a neighboring clinic. From there, a helicopter sent him to the hospital. He was released on Wednesday.

As is true in the rest of the United States, bear attacks are extremely rare in Yellowstone. Since the creation of the park in 1872, eight people have been killed by bears, According to the Park website. For comparison, 125 people drowned and 23 died from Burns after falling into hot sources.

Even seeing a grizzly man is quite rare in the 48 lower states. Before 1800, they were much more common, with around 50,000 errors in the American West. But European settlers considered them a deadly threat to people and livestock and chased them to almost extinction, reducing their number to less than 1,000

Thanks to recovery and conservation efforts in recent decades, the population has increased to almost 2,000, mainly in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

However, the spectrum of a bear attack, especially by a grizzly man, is enough to turn the blood of most hikers. While experts tell the hinterland travelers to stand up and to retaliate if they are attacked by a black bear, the standard advice for years have been to lie down and play dead against a much larger and more aggressive grizzly.

This advice has been updated recently, but not much. A national park Website provides advice On what to do, said: “If you surprise a grizzly / brown bear and it loads or attacks, don’t fight! Rinse only if the attack persists. “

The hiker who was attacked on Tuesday told the park managers that he thought it was a black bear, but the location, the behavior and size of the park personnel made by the bear suspected that it could have been a grizzly.

The discovery of an animal carcass near the attack and the confirmation that the traces of bear found nearby were left by a grizzly, support this conclusion.

The path was closed indefinitely and the rangers swept the area to make sure that there were no other hikers in imminent danger.

As for the bear? Park managers say that he was probably surprised also and simply acting in self -defense. Thus, the park, “will not take any management measures against the bear”.

Last year, Jon Kyle Mohr faced a similar meeting with a black bear in Yosemite National Park in California.

He was less than a mile at the end of an ultra-ring of 50 miles that he had started 4 p.m. earlier in gigantic lakes when he saw a huge black shape loaded.

In an instant, he said, he felt “a certain sharpness” on his shoulder followed by a powerful blow which sent him tripping in the dark. When he turned around, people a hundred meters away shone their headlights in his direction and shouted: “Bear!”

It worked. The bear disappeared in the dark and Mohr ended up with torn clothes and a few scratches, but more serious damage.

When asked what he thought of experience, Mohr said he was incredibly shaken at the start, and that it happened near the start of the Falls Vernal path, one of the most populous places in the park.

But after a day or two to think, he had settled in a more Zen state of mind.

“It was just a really strange and random collision,” he said. “If I had rested my feet for 20 seconds more at any time”, during the 16 -hour race, “it would not have happened.”