HELENA, Mont. — A grizzly bear that fatally mauled a Montana male around Yellowstone National Park this spring was probably defending a moose carcass and might have continued to aggressively guard the cache — charging at rescuers and investigators — because of a the latest combat with another grizzly, investigators theorized.
Charles “Carl” Mock, 40, of West Yellowstone, was attacked by the bear near the Baker’s Gap Campground, about 2.5 miles north of West Yellowstone on April 15. He identified as 911 just in advance of 3:45 p.m.
Mock was equipped to deploy bear spray, but the 411-pound male bear stayed in the area, bluff charging and stalking rescuers, according to the investigation of Mock’s loss of life that incorporated information and facts from federal, state and neighborhood organizations. The 20-year-outdated bear was shot and killed right after it billed a staff of wildlife investigators who returned to the scene the future day.
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A examine of its gastrointestinal contents found out moose hair, cartilage and muscle mass tissue, alongside with other tissue that was afterwards determined to be from a different grizzly bear, investigators stated.
The grizzly bear tissue and its site in the bear’s reduce tummy suggested the bear “had potentially been in a really recent battle with another grizzly bear defending the moose carcass or fought taking the moose carcass from a different grizzly bear,” the report said. “If this had been the situation, those people interactions could have contributed to (the bear’s) over-all intense protection of the moose carcass” toward Mock, preliminary look for and rescue personnel and the investigation workforce.
Mock, a backcountry guideline, was on the cellphone with dispatchers for 49 minutes when he tried to direct searchers to his position. He told a dispatcher he experienced been using images.
Mock’s camera, which was located at the scene of the assault, was placed in his automobile, and close friends taken out his car or truck from the spot. Investigators did not have the chance to study the digicam at the time and when they appeared at the memory card on April 17 there ended up no photographs from the Baker’s Gap place or any from the working day of the attack, the report reported.
“Whether any photographs have been taken off in advance of my observation is mysterious, as command was missing in excess of the camera,” Montana match warden Robert Pohle wrote in his report.
Mock endured a serious head harm and was taken by ambulance to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in which he underwent considerable surgical procedures. He died two times just after the assault, obtaining not spoken to investigators.
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On April 16, seven investigators and a dog hiked into the spot knowledgeable that the bear could still be all over and that if it did cost them it may perhaps have to be killed, the report mentioned.
The staff stopped and fired cracker rounds and hollered quite a few situations as they hiked into the spot. As they received near to a boggy, damp location, they could see brush and a tiny tree transfer.
“All members stopped and readied in circumstance it was the bear and it charged,” the report mentioned. “Within seconds the bear silently charged out of the brush, head down, ears back and running total out.”
The bear was briefly slowed by deep snow just before digging its way very clear and commencing to cost again.
Pohle’s report said he and two many others called out that they were heading to hearth pictures at the bear. A forest company officer fired some last shots to protect against unwanted soreness and struggling on the element of the bear as perfectly as to safeguard the public.
It was not identified if Mock understood the carcass was in the area or why he was in the area, Pohle wrote.
