A photographer in Teton NP attacked by grizzly mom protecting her young

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One of the few stories that I have heard where the hiker wasn't at fault. Just a mother bear doing what mother bears do and an unfortunate wrong place at the wrong time encounter for the hiker. He did a good job and everything right, glad he will be alright. I'm also glad to hear the bear isn't going to be put down. There is always risk we knowingly accept when going into wild places.
 
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Viathelens said:
...Got my bear spray delivered to me a few days ago...
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I assume you are driving to Teton and not flying? In case anyone reading this is unaware, bear spray is not allowed on commercial airlines.

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MrFotoFool said:
I assume you are driving to Teton and not flying? In case anyone reading this is unaware, bear spray is not allowed on commercial airlines.

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FWIW, there are several bear spray rental operations in and around Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons that charge a nominal fee if the spray is returned unused:

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In 2022 when I took this same trip while in Teton NP I ended up, accidentally, maybe 50 feet away from a grizzly boar, no bear spray, no where to hide except crouched down in the bush. Lucky for me he was not in a bad mood nor was he interested in me at all, although he did look back once (second shot) and sort of had a look that concerned me. I got off a couple of shots as he progressed along the path! That incident always reminds to get bear spray.

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I hope everyone realizes the victim did not have the time to engage the bear spray. It only came into play when the bear bit into the canister. I am not trying to dissuade anyone away from carrying bear spray just beware of the time required to put it to use. Even when a bear charges from a 100yds away, you will only have seconds to deploy the bear spray. Tourists in the Tetons have become far to complacent about the dangers bears pose.
 
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Shutterbug fan 1 said:
I hope everyone realizes the victim did not have the time to engage the bear spray. It only came into play when the bear bit into the canister. I am not trying to dissuade anyone away from carrying bear spray just beware of the time required to put it to use. Even when a bear charges from a 100yds away, you will only have seconds to deploy the bear spray. Tourists in the Tetons have become far to complacent about the dangers bears pose.
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Your average car-traveling tourist isn't in any danger from the bears. Bear attacks always happen either in the backcountry or in remote campgrounds (usually outside the park). This guy was hiking off-trail searching for owls. My personal preference when hiking anywhere I know grizzlies frequent is to NOT hike alone. If at all possible, I bring at least one other person along and at least one of us is carrying bear spray in hand anytime we're not out in a very open place where we can see around us.
 
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The advice that is seldom followed is to make noise when hiking in YNP so as not to surprise a sow and cubs. It is difficult when one is making as little noise as possible to avoid spooking animals to then be noisy in the park.

I figure bear spray is part of the cost of a trip to Yellowstone. I am already paying for a hotel room and meals in restaurants and a rental car and airline tickets so in the overall scheme of things the cost of the bear spray is trivial.

There are no alternatives to using bear spray with a charging bear. People should learn to use if properly by taking a few minutes to watch one of the youtube videos. I carry my canister on my belt for quick access and also make an effort to be attentive to everything around me.

Bears when grazing can often be out of sight in the sagebrush so it pays to keep scanning so you will notice when they pop their heads up. This should be second nature for a wildlife photographer.
 
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RikWriter said:
This guy was doing that, though.
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Not in the story but known to people in the know is that the area the attack took place in is a carcuss dump that the park has used for years for road kills. There's one near Canyon in YS as well that was the sight of a mauling a few years ago. Was he really looking for owls? Maybe, maybe not. So not only did you have a cub involved, you had food involved as well. Not a good combination.
 
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bsinc1962 said:
Not in the story but known to people in the know is that the area the attack took place in is a carcuss dump that the park has used for years for road kills. There's one near Canyon in YS as well that was the sight of a mauling a few years ago. Was he really looking for owls? Maybe, maybe not. So not only did you have a cub involved, you had food involved as well. Not a good combination.
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I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't know about the carcass dump because I live near the parks and frequent Yellowstone and GT a lot and had no idea where the carcass dump is.
 
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simonsi said:
But also “hurrying” (his word), so maybe not allowing as much time for any bears to move away - which is the whole point of making noise in the first place?
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My point is, I wouldn't count on making noise as a surefire way to keep from being attacked by bears. If a grizzly is guarding a carcass, they won't care if you're singing an aria, they'll still kill the crap out of you. Also, while some cubs will be cautious and avoid a human making noise in the woods, others will just be curious and go check you out.
 
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Viathelens said:
In 2022 when I took this same trip while in Teton NP I ended up, accidentally, maybe 50 feet away from a grizzly boar, no bear spray, no where to hide except crouched down in the bush. Lucky for me he was not in a bad mood nor was he interested in me at all, although he did look back once (second shot) and sort of had a look that concerned me. I got off a couple of shots as he progressed along the path! That incident always reminds to get bear spray.

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Quite an experience! I'm glad you were ok.

We had a less concerning one in Sequoia Kings Canyon NP on a mountain trail. We were descending a steep area and saw a large bear ascending the same trail towards us, displaying interest. We stepped uphill to give him the trail and to have a very minor uphill advantage. And made a lot of noise.

It continued straight towards us, nose high in the air sniffing. Eventually it stopped close enough to really hear its breathing.

I tried to make myself as large and loud as I could. My wife is pretty small. When it got to about 20 feet away and halted, head high and sniffing, I threw 6 inch diameter rocks in its direction, but not trying to hit him. I thought about tossing my backpack to it since it had food in it, but didn't have time. I was thinking that losing the backpack was better than the alternatives.

I think not backing down but letting him still have the trail led him to descend a little and rapidly go around us. The trail was by far the easiest path to follow for him up the mountain. Once it decided to leave, it was amazingly fast.

I talked to the rangers afterwards and they said we did the right thing. The wrote up the incident mainly to record how used to people bears have become. But they didn't like how interested it seemed in us. And how deliberately it approached over what seemed like a long time, but probably wasn't.

I say less concerning than your experience because it wasn't a grizzly. But it still left us pretty alarmed. I'm impressed you were able to get some photos. I probably would have thrown my camera towards the bear if I had one.

That was the most concerning bear incident I've had in a lifetime of going to the Sierras. It was also during the day whereas most other experiences were at night when they visited our backpacking campsite, which is expected and easier to prepare for.
 
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Years ago I bought a remote piece of property that came with a very large bear. 7-8 inch paw prints, 12x12 piles of poo. We had the big cans of bear mace and my 11 year old daughter couldn't help experimenting. It blew back in her face and although uncomfortable she was in no way incapacitated. Looking for something more reliable I bought a 44 Mag revolver and found I was a terrible shot. It's as hard to return a gun here as to buy one so I stuck with it and I think around 78,000 rounds I started to be a decent shot. For almost 20 years I've been armed in the woods and it's gone well. Not one critter harmed and when I finally did see my grizzly I didn't soil myself. I didn't push it either. He was a considerate neighbor for many years and kept the more troublesome black bears away.

Animals aren't dumb, they sense your attitude and mostly react accordingly. That you are willing to defend yourself goes a long way. Sometimes critters go nuts, in Big Sur we've had 2 cougars (in 40 years) go on killing sprees and there was nothing to do but put them down.

I'm not a hunter but I don't have a problem defending myself in the moment. Tracking down a critter later that attacked when it got spooked is wrong.
 
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This guy was one of 16 Grizzlies we saw at Grand Teton over a three day period during May of 2021. Check the claws. We also saw three black bears. We saw Grizzly 399 and her four cubs on two separate occasions. The first time we saw her, there were so many photographers we could not stop the vehicle to get photos. The second time, we were leaving the campground and she and cubs walked right in front of our RV. No one else was around. My camera was in the back. Lesson learned - always keep a camera ready to shoot in a nature rich environment. Rangers were doing a good job of maintaining people-bear separation. I was about 50 feet away from this guy, and I was standing next to the ranger's truck. She told me to get into my car. Unfortunately, my car was about 10 feet from the bear. We also passed a moose on a hiking trail. She was about 10 feet from us and we didn't see her until we were right next to her. Fortunately, she was more interested in vegetation on the tree than she was in us. A moose can do serious damage as well.
 

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Pelican Valley Bear.jpg
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Ran into this guy while hiking on the Pelican Valley trail one September. We pulled out our bear sprays and backed away carefully, but he never even looked at us.
 
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AlanB313 said:
Quite an experience! I'm glad you were ok.

We had a less concerning one in Sequoia Kings Canyon NP on a mountain trail. We were descending a steep area and saw a large bear ascending the same trail towards us, displaying interest. We stepped uphill to give him the trail and to have a very minor uphill advantage. And made a lot of noise.

It continued straight towards us, nose high in the air sniffing. Eventually it stopped close enough to really hear its breathing.

I tried to make myself as large and loud as I could. My wife is pretty small. When it got to about 20 feet away and halted, head high and sniffing, I threw 6 inch diameter rocks in its direction, but not trying to hit him. I thought about tossing my backpack to it since it had food in it, but didn't have time. I was thinking that losing the backpack was better than the alternatives.

I think not backing down but letting him still have the trail led him to descend a little and rapidly go around us. The trail was by far the easiest path to follow for him up the mountain. Once it decided to leave, it was amazingly fast.

I talked to the rangers afterwards and they said we did the right thing. The wrote up the incident mainly to record how used to people bears have become. But they didn't like how interested it seemed in us. And how deliberately it approached over what seemed like a long time, but probably wasn't.

I say less concerning than your experience because it wasn't a grizzly. But it still left us pretty alarmed. I'm impressed you were able to get some photos. I probably would have thrown my camera towards the bear if I had one.

That was the most concerning bear incident I've had in a lifetime of going to the Sierras. It was also during the day whereas most other experiences were at night when they visited our backpacking campsite, which is expected and easier to prepare for.
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Apparently we all have bear stories! I don’t have a lot of fear and that might have helped in my situation. I figured if I was going to die I’d get the shot! One of my more stupid moments in life…😳.
 
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