Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center grizzly bears in West Yellowstone, Montana, are exploring their paddock. Animals living in the Discovery Center were either rescued from nature while they were young or injured, or had to be euthanized because they represented a danger to humans.

(Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY & # 39; HUI)

Wyoming wildlife officials are investigating what they say is an unusual behavior of a grizzly mother and her little year after the death of a hunting guide and the injury of her client the last week in the desert.

Wildlife officials shot dead mother on Sunday and trapped and euthanized her cub on Friday after the death of guide Mark Uptain in a forest area near the border of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, northeast of Jackson Hole. Officials say the bears behaved in an unusual way by attacking the men, who tried unsuccessfully to repel them with a spray against the bears, a stronger version of the pepper spray commonly used by road users. hinterland of the region.

"It's a tragic situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims, "said Brad Hovinga, Jackson's Regional Wildlife Supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on Monday.

State biologists were conducting forensic tests to confirm that bears were attacking hunters and to determine if there were underlying health reasons for why they would have behaved in unusual ways.

Uptain was a five-year-old married father. The funeral was held Wednesday at Jackson's First Baptist Church, where he sat on the council of elders. A The GoFundMe account was created to help his family.

According to wildlife officials, Uptain and his client, a man from Florida, shot dead an elk on Thursday night and were preparing Friday to pick up his body out of the hinterland when the two bears aggressively assaulted them.

"The investigation revealed that the two men approached the carcass of undisturbed momentum and that there was no sign of anybody in the immediate vicinity of the carcass, "said Hovinga in his statement. "It's after you started dressing the moose that the attack occurred."

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Grizzlies do not usually attack humans like this, wildlife officials said. Attacks are more often associated with a surprise encounter, especially if humans have come between a mother and a cub or if bears are defending their food. Hovinga stated that neither of them had happened in this case, calling their behavior "inconsistent" with the normal behavior of bears.

Uptain and his client tried to repel the bears with a bear spray and a pistol, but without success, officials said. The client escaped and called for help on Friday. The body of Uptain was found by researchers on Saturday, officials said, and wildlife managers set traps to catch the bears. They shot and killed the bear mother Sunday morning and then euthanized the yearling after trapped.

The bears had never been captured, moved or manipulated by wildlife officials. Wyoming's long-time hunting guide, Sy Gilliland, said the way they carried their case should be of concern to backcountry users.

"They were not attacking the carcass of elk – they were pursuing human beings, that should lift the hair on the back of all our necks," he said.

About 20 grizzlies have been deliberately killed by humans in Wyoming this year, mainly because they threatened livestock or humans.

The incident comes just weeks after a federal judge temporarily stopped the Wyoming state officials' plan for a grizzly bear hunt this month to determine if the bears were to be found again. federal protection. Proponents have said that hunting is necessary to control a growing population of grizzly bears living near humans and to reduce the likelihood of this type of attack.

Last year, the Trump administration removed grizzlies from the protection of the Endangered Species Act, allowing Wyoming to launch a hunt. The hunt is suspended until at least October 1, but last week's deadly attack has further ignited tensions between hunters and wildlife defenders. Opponents of the hunt say that Uptain's death is tragic but should not be used to influence the judge's decision-making process.

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