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A tourist from Indiana was attacked and injured by a grizzly bear in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska on Monday evening, park officials said.
The 55-year-old tourist, whose name has not been released, was walking alone in thick fog in the Thoroughfare Pass area when a mother bear and several cubs charged him from nearby bushes, the National said on Tuesday. Park Service in a press release.
He had puncture wounds to a calf, left ribs and left shoulder, the agency said.
The victim used bear spray that could have cut off the attack, park service said. He walked 1.5 miles to a drop-in center where “medical staff” on vacation in Denali treated him like a park bus driver called 911, he said.
The hiker was taken to a medical center near the park before being transferred to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, about 120 miles away, park officials said. He was stabilized at Fairbanks hospital, they said.
“Due to the apparent defensive nature of this attack, there are no plans to locate the bear involved,” the park service said. “Bears with cubs are naturally on the defensive of their cubs, especially when surprised. There is no indication that this bear is particularly dangerous.”
Grizzly bears are federally protected as a threatened species in the lower 48 states. According to the National Wildlife Federation, there are fewer than 1,500 grizzly bears in the lower 48, but they thrive, comparatively, in Alaska, where they number about 31,000.
The backcountry area of the attack is closed for a week as a precaution, the parks service said.
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