Saturday, December 21, 2024

Grizzly bear kills mountain biker near Glacier Park

Glacier National Park Entrance (Flickr: Wesley Fryer)
Glacier National Park Entrance (Flickr: Wesley Fryer)

By: Michael Watts II

Recently in Helena, Montana, a grizzly bear killed a mountain biker and attacked another hiker. Unfortunately the biker died. The other hiker managed to make it out of the confrontation alive. The bear attack happened on Wednesday and the Glacier Park has remained closed since the attack. The main entrance is three miles from the park.

According to Yahoo news, the two men that were involved are Brad Treat and an unknown hiker. Officer Chuck Curry, of Flathead County said “The two men surprised the bear and that is what led to the bear attacking them.”

The attack happened around Glacier Park which is 360 miles away from Yellowstone National Park. The grizzlies in the Glacier area among about 1,000 bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which also includes the Bob Marshall Wilderness south of the park.

Before the attack on Wednesday, there was 10 other cases of bears attacking people that come to visit the park, according to reports.

In an interview with Officer Chuck Curry he shared, “Brad was an integral member of our area law enforcement team and a friend to us all and he was a law-enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service.”

The bear attack isn’t random. In the most well-known Glacier attacks, bears killed two people in different parts of the park in a single night in 1967. Those attacks became the subject of a 1969 book by Jack Olsen titled “Night of the Grizzlies,” and later a documentary by the same name.

Since 1970, grizzly bears have been considered a threaten species.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here