Springfield, Oregon resident, Steven Bartley, was attacked last week by a bear that snuck into his Yellowstone Park campsite in Montana. The 59 year old Bartley was sleeping in his tent went the bear swiped at him. He did his best to fight off the bear with his hands though, the bear was able to bite both. The bear did eventually get scared off, leaving Mr. Bartley with puncture wounds that required stitches and a fractured right hand.

The attack does not to appear to be the fault of bad camping - Steven Bartley had properly stored his food and had not cooked in the site that day.

This tale is an easy reminder to keep a safe distance from wild animals, even when conducting organized or well-planned animal watching hikes. These large predators can be unpredictable. Store food and items with strong smells in air-tight containers no matter whether you are hiking or camping and keep food items away from your tent. Do not provoke animals while you are watching them and move away slowly at any sign of unease.

Photo courtesy of Michael Moncur

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 9:06 am and is filed under Outdoor Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.