Bear Spray could have Saved Mauled Researcher

A man who dedicated his life to studying nature died last week after he was attacked by a bear outside Yellowstone National Park. The 70-year-old man was found dead in a remote area of the Shoshone National Forest on the evening of June 17 according to the Park County Sheriff’s office.

The body of the man was found by a member of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team which is situated in an area where bears were being captured especially for research. According to a release he died as a result of fatal injuries caused by a bear attack.

At the time of the attack the 70-year-old man wasn’t armed, nor was he carrying bear spray with him which is often employed by many hikers in the area to stop bears from attacking. Unfortunately if he did have such a self defense device there is always the what-if instance. What if he did have some pepper spray on his person, maybe then he would have survived.

Many of the agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service, and game wardens searched the area for the suspected bear. However they believed that a bear that had been capture earlier by the Grizzly Bear Study Team, and equipped with a radio collar for a research project may be the one they are after.

It wasn’t long before DNA tests confirmed this to be true after a bear was shot and killed from a helicopter to be the one who mauled the 70-year-old researcher.

While this is the first bear attack that has been heard of in the Cody area, it is common knowledge that bear attacks in the greater Park County area do happen. In many instances reported bear incidents generally happen in early fall or late summer when the hunting season commences.

However regardless of the time you decide to hike through an area that is known to hold bears, it is important that bear spray should be on your person, and located closely to you which will enable you to retrieve the device when you most need it.

Confronting a bear may be very rare, but it’s always better to have some form of protection on you then none at all, only to be defenseless when you are confronted with a bear.