Man survives weekend bear attack in Teton Basin
A hiker is lucky to be alive after a weekend encounter with a black bear near Alta, Wyoming.
Imagine you’re hiking through the woods, alone. According to Gregg Losinski from the Department of Fish and Game, that’s your first mistake.
“Hiking alone is never a good idea in bear country,” Losinski said.
Suddenly, you see a bear, and the bear sees you. You run away and climb the nearest tree. As Losinski points out, that’s another mistake.
“The one thing never to do with a bear is A: run away, or B: try to climb a tree. They can do both better than we can,” Losinski said.
That’s exactly what happened to one lone hiker on the Aspen Trail, along the western slope of the Tetons.
After the hiker climbed the tree, the bear grabbed the man’s foot and pulled him back to the ground. Then, the animal ran away.
The man escaped with only some puncture wounds to his foot.
“The individual was fortunate in that regard, that the bear was maybe startled by his fall, or whatever, and left,” Losinski said.
Maybe he was fortunate, but Losinski warns that others might not be so lucky.
“You’re always in bear country when you’re watching this show,” Losinski said, referring to our newscast.
He also says that a can of bear spray can be your best friend.
“[Bears] snot, they sneeze, they don’t like it, they run away,” Losinski said.
Anyone can be trained to use bear spay, but of course, it’s better to avoid a bear encounter altogether.
“Anything that smells at all — good or bad — is a bear attractant,” Losinski said. “We need to think about how we can keep bears from getting into them.”
According to the District Ranger in the Teton Basin, the man that was attacked by the bear was part of a group that had run away from a ranger late the night before the incident, and was unaccounted for. Rangers said the group fled because they were sitting around a campfire, presumably drinking alcohol and under the legal drinking age.
Fish and Game officials did not catch the bear that attacked the man this weekend.
