Grizzly Bear ©Kevin Sanders 2006

Current Accidents & News Releases for Yellowstone Park

Bear Mauling's In Yellowstone--2006

Yellowstone Bear Deaths--2006

Tim Treadwell Incident 2003

*1995 through 2007 Annual Grizzly Bear Reports*

Visit the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team's site to read the end of year reports.

    Anyone concerned about the continued survival of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states will want to read the following articles, which will give you a greater understanding of just what is at stake.

Lance Craighead, Delisting the Grizzly Bear

Wildlife biologist fears decline of species

Public Needs Accounting Of Grizzly Efforts

Federal Plan Fails to Protect Grizzly Habitat:

Bear Mauling's, Bear Attacks In Yellowstone Park--2007

May 25, 1:03 PM EDT
Wildlife photographer mauled by grizzly undergoes surgery

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) -- A wildlife photographer mauled by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park was listed in fair condition Friday after undergoing seven hours of emergency surgery to repair his severely clawed face.

Jim Cole, 57, of Bozeman, underwent the surgery Thursday and was recovering at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, according to family friend Rich Berman.
Berman said Cole was unable to speak and was breathing through a ventilator and being fed through a tube.

"He's lucky to be alive," Berman said. "The trauma center here is just phenomenal."
Park officials said Cole was photographing bears Wednesday in the Hayden Valley's Trout Creek drainage, which is prime grizzly habitat. He was hiking alone, off trail, about two or three miles from the road when a female with a single cub attacked.
Berman said the bear hit Cole twice on the head and face with its claws. Cole had bear pepper spray with him, but it is unknown if he used it.

It was the second time Cole was mauled by a grizzly.

In 1993, he was hiking with a friend in Montana's Glacier National Park when he surprised a young grizzly. The bear tore a hole in his scalp and broke his wrist before the friend used pepper spray and the bear left.

Cole mentioned the experience in his 2004 book, "Lives of Grizzlies: Montana and Wyoming."
"I figured this was as traumatic an experience for the young bruin as it was for me," Cole wrote later.
Cole has written and taken photos for two books about grizzly bears, and as a writer he advocated photographing Yellowstone bears from the safety of the road. But he also said he has hiked thousands of miles in grizzly country.

"I want to document natural grizzly behavior, not bears reacting to humans," Cole wrote in 2004. "All the same, as careful as I try to be, I certainly have made my share of mistakes."

In 2004, park rangers ticketed Cole, allegedly for intentionally getting within 100 yards of a grizzly female and two cubs. Cole denied the charge and a judge acquitted him in 2005.

Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said there were no plans to kill or relocate the bear.
"From the little bit of information that we have, it appears he surprised the bear and was attacked," he said.

Berman said he knows Cole would want the National Park Service to leave the bear alone.
"If anything good comes from this, it would be that people learn from his mistake," Berman said. "Jim would want people to still go to the park, enjoy the park, respect the wildlife and be careful. And please don't try to get too close to get the perfect picture."

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Yellowstone Park Bear Update

Several grizzly bears have been observed out of hibernation so far with the fist report on 3/15/08 up above Mammoth Hotsprings. A second grizzly bear was observed for several days feeding on a bison carcass across from Hellroaring Drainage. There have been several other reports deeper in the park of bears traveling around, even one walking through the Old Faithful Lodge parking lot!

For more information on Yellowstone's bear population---go here.

Timothy Treadwell Incident

  After quite a few requests for this information. I have decided to re-post the article I had earlier published on-line regarding the Timothy Treadwell Incident which occurred on October 6, 2003 in Katmai National Park which then became a movie entitled "Grizzly Man", directed and produced by Werner Herzog, and Lion's Gate Films.

Tim Treadwell Report and Examination