Yellowstone Grizzly Attacks Injure Four In Two Incidents

Grizzly attacks at Yellowstone National Park have left four people with minor injuries. The two separate bear attacks happened on the same day.

The first attack happened on Thursday while two hikers were walking on a trail near Canyon Village. A female grizzly attacked the pair when they came across her young cub.

Park spokesman Al Nash explained that the “bear by all accounts was acting on instinct, defending its cub,” reports ABC News. Because of this, the park officials decided not to pursue the grizzly.

The victims have not been identified. However, they explained that one was treated at the scene and the other was treated at a hospital for bite and claw wounds.

Both victims deployed bear spray and dropped to the ground to play dead. Nash explained that their actions were perfect and exactly what park rangers advise hikers to do.

The second Yellowstone grizzly attack happened about 70 miles away in a valley near Island Park, Idaho, notes The Los Angeles Times. Two Bureau of Land Management contract workers were doing a forest health assessment when a grizzly jumped out and attacked them.

One man had to have stitches on his thigh and buttocks for bite sounds. The other suffered bite wounds on his hand while he was attempting to fend off the attack with bear spray.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Gregg Losinski explained that the bear was likely resting in a day bed and was startled by the workers.

Officials went to the scene to collect the bear’s DNA, a common way to track grizzlies involved in violent incidents. Grizzly attacks in the area around Yellowstone have become more common in recent years as the grizzly population recovers. The massive bears have been responsible for four deaths in the region in the past three years.

Grizzly attacks have also wounded three other people in the Rockies, including a rancher near Yellowstone and a woman on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.

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