Bear attack victim recovering from wounds


Saturday, July 19, 2008 | No comments posted.

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — An Oregon man was recovering in a hospital Friday from wounds inflicted by a bear at a Montana campground a day earlier, and wildlife officials were trying to trap the animal they believe is a grizzly.

The man was at a campground about five miles from the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park when the bear entered his tent and attacked him early Thursday. Joel Hunt, a spokesman for West Park Hospital in Cody, Wyo., identified him as Steven Bartley, 59, of Springfield.

Bartley received cuts and puncture wounds on both hands, and his right hand was fractured, Hunt said.

“He is fine,” Hunt said Friday. Bartley, who has stitches in both hands and two pins in his fractured hand, is likely to be released from the Cody hospital on Sunday, Hunt said.

In Montana’s Cooke City area near Yellowstone, two baited bear traps were in place Friday at the Soda Butte campground where the attack occurred as Bartley lay in a sleeping bag.  Melissa Frost, spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Bartley was unable to see the bear in the darkness.

“The bear came through that tent and swiped him. He put his hand up, and the bear bit his hand,” Frost said. When Bartley moved his other hand, it was bitten as well, she said.

Careless food storage sometimes is a factor in conflicts between wildlife and people, but not in this case, Frost said. Bartley’s campsite was “spotless,” she said.

“He didn’t have any food in his campsite outside of a bear-proof container,” she said. “He didn’t cook at his campsite. The campground overall was very clean.”

Given the bear’s behavior, wildlife officials believe it was accustomed to people and their food, Frost said.

If the bear is trapped, it likely will be killed, she said.

“This kind of behavior is a serious concern for public safety,” Frost said.

Both the Soda Butte campground and another nearby remained closed Friday, for the second day.

In southwestern Montana, state wildlife officials trapped and killed a black bear north of Dillon after a backpacker was bitten while cooking fish at his campsite earlier this month, The Montana Standard reported. Fish, Wildlife and Parks told the newspaper the bear trapped July 10 at a campground in the Pioneer Mountains was euthanized. The agency said it could not be certain the bear was the same one that bit the backpacker. He received hospital care for puncture wounds and was released.
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