Bloody encounters between grizzly bears and people at
Yellowstone National Park this summer weren’t really attacks or
maulings, says park public affairs officer Marsha Karle. They were
more like surprises, she says. In June, Glen Lacey, a park
maintenance employee, startled a bear which then punctured his
shoulder with its teeth. When park concessionaire Randy Ingersoll
surprised a sow with two cubs a few weeks later, the grizzly
charged and Ingersoll decided to play dead. The bear left him after
breaking his shoulder, cutting his forehead and inflicting multiple
puncture wounds. On July 17 hiker Robert O’Connell of Wyoming was
saved from an attacking grizzly by a friend. The friend, atop a
mule, made a surprise charge at the bear, and O’Connell survived
with slashes to the head, hands and
legs.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Surprise!.
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