SALMON, Idaho - Montana wildlife officials have trapped an adult female grizzly they believe killed one camper and injured two others in predawn attacks near Yellowstone National Park Wednesday.
Two of the grizzly mother’s three cubs also have been trapped, they said.
The bear’s DNA was being tested to see if it matches samples taken from the victims, and officials should be able to verify soon if they have the killer grizzly, said Ron Aasheim, spokesman for the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department.
The killer bear is almost certain to be destroyed once positively identified, but the fate of the cubs was unclear. Aasheim said the cubs will likely never be allowed to roam free.
“When you have cubs at the side of a bear that did this, they probably won’t be released into the wild,” he said. “There’s a limit to what can be tolerated by the public for its safety.”
The bear is suspected of killing one man and injuring another man and a woman in three separate predawn attacks at the popular Soda Butte campground in the Gallatin National Forest, located on Yellowstone’s northern fringe near Bozeman.
The woman, Deb Freele, 58, from Ontario, Canada, described a harrowing few seconds after she was awaken in her tent by a bear biting her arm. She said she survived by playing dead until the animal gave up and lumbered away.
Wildlife experts say deadly bear attacks — either by grizzlies or black bares — are rare.
Chuck Schwartz, head of a government team that oversees Yellowstone-area grizzlies, said the region averages five human-grizzly encounters a year that cause injury. Few ever prove fatal.
“It’s extremely rare,” said Schwartz, leader of the Interagency Bear Study Team.
