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Preliminary results of the investigation into the recent death of a hiker in Yellowstone National Park show that the man was attacked by a grizzly bear. While the exact cause of death has not been determined, investigators have identified what appear to be defensive wounds on the victim’s forearms. The victim’s body was found partially consumed and cached, or covered, in the vicinity of the Elephant Back Loop Trail near Lake Village on Friday afternoon. Based on partial tracks found at the scene, it appears that an adult female grizzly and at least one cub-of-the-year were present and likely involved...

Grizzly bears were the leading category among the 385 total conflicts between humans and large carnivores in Wyoming last year. Black bears were second with 134 conflicts, followed by wolves (64) and mountain lions (23). ... grizzly bears continue to expand their range. "They've far exceeded the expected geographic recovery distribution ... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide this year whether it will lift protections for some 1,000 grizzlies that scientists say live in the Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Removal of the protections would transfer jurisdiction over grizzlies to states

Yellowstone's grizzlies, now classified as a threatened species, were briefly removed from protected status by the federal government in 2007, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the outsized, hump-shouldered bears had made a healthy comeback. At the time, the number of grizzlies in the region had exceeded the government's recovery goal of 500 bears, the government said. But conservationists successfully challenged the de-listing in court, arguing that the government discounted climate changes ... On Wednesday, members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee sought to reverse that decision, recommending a new de-listing after reviewing a report suggesting Yellowstone's...

Home of the grizzly: Photographer's stunning images capture beauty of America and Canada's real bear country, where man takes second placeThe continuing fight for life of North America's bears has been captured in spectacular style in a series of dramatic pictures. Grizzly, polar and black bears are pictured in the wilds of Alaska scavenging in bins, stripping a whale carcass and scrapping over the best fishing spots. Photographer Steven Kazlowski has spent the past 15 years living in bear country and capturing the most intimate, hilarious and adrenaline-fuelled moments of his furry subjects. The series by the 43-year-old also features...

Yellowstone National Park wolf project leader Doug Smith snapped this photo last Friday, while tracking some of the park's wolf packs from the air. Smith spotted a dead bull bison in the park's Hayden Valley, an apparent victim of a nasty encounter with another bull bison during the herd's annual rut. As you can see, a very large grizzly bear has claimed the bison carcass as his own. What you can't see, according to Smith, is the Canyon wolf pack lurking some 50 yards behind the grizzly, patiently waiting its turn on the carcass. Smith says as his pilot circled...

A grizzly attacked and killed a lone backpacker in Denali National Park and Preserve on Friday after the man encountered the bear next to a river and lingered there snapping pictures, according to the National Park Service. The death is the first fatal bear mauling in Alaska in seven years and the only one in the 6-million-acre park's recorded history, going back more than 90 years, the Park Service said. "It's an extremely rare event, and it's not common that we even have injuries related to bears," said park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin. "We don't see a lot, and we think...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The judge in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a man killed by a grizzly bear has decided not to view the mauling site near Yellowstone National Park in person on the advice of the U.S. Marshals Service, which has deemed the area too risky because of recent bear activity. ... A 430-pound grizzly killed Erwin F. Evert, of Park Ridge, Ill., six miles east of Yellowstone in June, 2010. The male grizzly had just reawakened after being trapped, tranquilized and studied by members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which is tasked with researching...

National Park Service A grizzly bear sow and three cubs roam inside Yellowstone National Park. CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has informed Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead that he shares the governor's desire to end federal protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears. Salazar wrote to Mead late last week, saying he expects the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies will finish their analysis of the effect of the decline of the whitebark pine tree on bear populations by early 2014. Scientists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies have been addressing the whitebark pine...

A grizzly bear killed a hunter in Boundary County today before another hunter fatally shot the bear. Officials from the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are at the scene of the attack, which occurred about 10 a.m. in the remote area of Buckhorn Mountain near the Montana border. The hunter who was killed is not a resident of Boundary County, officials said. The victim’s name is being withheld pending family notification. The hunter’s partner shot and killed the attacking grizzly, officials said. Several rifle hunting seasons are open in the...

BOISE --Idaho's congressional delegation introduced legislation today that would amend the Endangered Species Act to clarify that people have the right to defend themselves and their families from grizzly bear attacks. The legislation is in response to the well-publicized case of Jeremy Hill, a north Idaho man who was charged last month with violating the ESA for killing a grizzly bear on his property in May. Hill said he believed he was defending himself and his family. While the U.S. attorney later dropped all federal criminal charges, Hill agreed to pay a $1,000 fine. Grizzly bears are listed as threatened...

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo -- Rangers investigated Saturday whether a Michigan man was the victim of a grizzly attack in Yellowstone National Park or if the bear had come upon the hiker's body after he died. The man was found Friday morning by two hikers on the Mary Mountain Trail, which runs northeast of the park's iconic Old Faithful geyser. Investigators found grizzly bear tracks and scat near the man, but were not immediately sure whether the grizzly caused the man's death or disturbed his body after he died.

The race director of a 100-mile ultra-marathon foot race through the Flathead National Forest has cancelled the event due to lingering snow ...the snow won't melt in time for the event scheduled for July 29. postponing the race would pose problems with shortening daylight hours and increased grizzly bear activity.

A husband and wife's backcountry hike along a popular trail turned tragic when they stumbled upon a grizzly bear and her cubs and the 57-year-old man was mauled to death, Yellowstone National Park officials said. The couple was hiking along the Wapiti Lake Trail in the Grand Canyon area of the park, park officials told ABC News. They had walked about a mile and a half from the trail head when they saw the grizzly sow and her cubs. "The bear attacked the man and killed him," said Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash. The woman screamed out for help as the...

The man responsible for snapping the dramatic photographs of a bison being chased by a grizzly bear has surfaced, providing sister station KTVQ in Billings with more pictures and the end to the tale.Alex Wypyszinski had just dropped off his wife at work and had a few hours to kill one morning last April.Wypyszinski says he likes to spend his free time in the morning snapping photos of wildlife in the park.Of course, he usually has to search the animals out.NEW PHOTOS BELOWIt all started when he was driving in the Fountain Flats area, located between the Madison Junction...

PASAYTEN WILDERNESS, Wash. — Past the asters and aspen and subalpine fir, past the quick, cold creeks and the huckleberry hillsides, the bear hunter stopped and cocked his tweezers. “Here,” said Bill Gaines, a wildlife biologist for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, “is the mother lode.” Caught on a prong of barbed wire that he had strung weeks earlier in these remote mountains was a tantalizing clue: strands of light brown bear hair. “Oh, look at that, look at that root right there,” he said. “That’s really good.” It will be months before DNA tests tell the full story: did those...

Wildlife officials have killed a grizzly bear in Wyoming and a grizzly bear in Montana to head-off potential lawsuits. The Montana grizzly killed and partially consumed Kevin Kammer at a Gallatin National Forest campground near Cooke City, Mont. on July 29. The Wyoming grizzly killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert on June 17 on the Shoshone National Forest near the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The circumstances were quite different, but the decision to kill the bears was undoubtedly influenced by a 1996 court case over the terrible bear mauling of 16 year-old Anna Knochel at a U.S. Forest...

CODY — Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal mauling Thursday of a Shoshone National Forest cabin owner by a grizzly bear. The incident took place at a site where a bear had been captured and released earlier Thursday. Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Cody, was reported missing by his wife to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team that had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about 10 miles east of Yellowstone National Park. Researchers had earlier trapped and released an adult male grizzly in the area... A study team member returned to the...

A man riding his bicycle to work Tuesday on a city trail was attacked by a grizzly bear, which swatted his ear and bit him on the leg, police said. Sean Berkey encountered the bear on the east end of Rover's Run trail at 5:30 a.m. as he headed to work at the Alaska Native Medical Center, where the 45-year-old works as a pediatric pharmacist. He had crossed a wooden bridge when he surprised the sow, who had a cub with her. Berkey stopped his bike, and the bear charged. He momentarily used his bike as a shield, said Bruce...

Inter Lake editorial U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy has raised the bar to insufferable heights when it comes to recovering a species under the Endangered Species Act, so much so that, if his ruling were upheld, American jurists should be prepared to slave over ESA litigation for eternity. Molloy's recent ruling that restored ESA protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears must have U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials wondering just what it will take to succeed with recovery. Molloy ruled their conservation strategies and plans for grizzly bears, developed through years of expensive efforts, were inadequate. Guidelines and standards for monitoring...

Alaska is a land of contrasts. Thirty minutes in a bush plane will transport a visitor to another world, somewhere over the rainbow-trout streams. Glaciers of turquoise ice float next to forests in this wilderness. Bear country, as nature intended -- and then altered by man. It is a fitting place for eccentric bear enthusiast Charlie Vandergaw to play by his own rules. "That's what I like about Alaska, because I can live like I want to live. Fish or hunt, and you don't have to answer to anyone out here. You're not controlled by other people," Vandergaw said. But...