Employee Attacked And Injured By Bear Outside Yellowstone Park
A park employee was attacked by a bear early last Sunday morning near Gardiner, just north of the park. Ken Meyer, the park’s safety manager, was hunting for black bear when he was mauled by what is believed to have been a female grizzly bear with cubs. Meyer sustained injuries to his arms, legs and chest. He subsequently underwent surgery at Livingston Memorial Hospital. Meyer was apparently walking near or along Little Trail Creek, which is north and west of Gardiner, early Sunday morning when he came upon what he said was a grizzly. The bear attacked him, retreated at some point, then attacked again. Meyer said he shot the bear with his rifle, possibly wounding it, before he walked out of the woods and called for help. Gallatin National Forest officials closed the area after the attack, fearing a wounded bear might be apt to injure others.
Members of the Forest Service, Park Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks searched for the bear on the ground and from the air for much of Sunday. A spokeswoman for the forest said that a team of three or four people were “aggressively charged” by a grizzly during the search, but it was not believed to be the bear involved in the earlier mauling. The closure includes the area up to one mile on either side of Forest Service Road 1701 from its junction with Travertine County Road, commonly called Travertine Bench, and one mile on either side of Little Trail Creek outside the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness boundary. The area includes Maiden Basin, Little Trail Creek Trail 49 and Lower Little Trail Creek Trail 319 and the Travertine Bench.
Source: NPS
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