The details of a bear rampage at a Montana campground in the Gallatin National Forest near Yellowstone National Park last week showed that some commonly known precautions for camping in bear country worked and some didn’t.
A grizzly bear killed one man and injured two people as they slept in their tents. One of the victims, Deb Freele, said she woke up just before the bear bit her on the arm. She says she screamed, but the louder she screamed, the harder the bear bit down. So she played dead and when she stopped moving and screaming, the bear stopped biting, then left her tent.
Playing dead and not fighting back is one of the things wildlife officials tell people to do if they are being attacked. In this case, it worked. Campers are also warned to keep food out of the reach of bears because it increases the danger of an attack. In this case, all the campers had put their food in metal food canisters at the campsites but that didn’t stop this rampaging bear.
Wildlife officials don’t know why the bear or bears targeted three of the 27 tents at the Soda Butte Campground. They later trapped the bear and found her three cubs that were malnourished.
– Deb Acord
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