Grizzly bears are impressive creatures. Here in Alaska, we live among them, and we're well aware of their capabilities; they are 500-pound murder missiles that can run 35 miles an hour, can rip off the door of a truck, and can smell a drop of olive oil for a mile downwind.
People do, on occasion, run afoul of one of these beasts. Sometimes it's the human's fault; every summer seems marked by some knucklehead who tries to get in nice and close to a big, charismatic animal for a selfie and gets messed up. But in a recent case in Glacier National Park, in which a hiker was attacked and dragged by a griz, it seems he did nothing to provoke the attack; this is literally a case of "wrong place, wrong time."
The attack occurred on May 28 on the Grinnell Glacier Trail, one of the park's most popular hiking routes, according to a fundraising page created after the incident.
The hiker, Daniel Crago, said he and a friend were nearing the end of the trail when he continued ahead to a snow-covered section to take in the views and snap a few photos.
Photos of the scenery; not a bear. That's key. At this point, there's no evidence Crago was aware of the bear's presence. The only thing he might have done better - it's not clear from the reports - was to make a little more noise in passing, which may have warned the bear away.
About 10 minutes later, as he began making his way back along the trail, he noticed a smaller grizzly bear nearby.
As he scanned the area, he spotted a larger grizzly on the mountainside about 15 feet away, the fundraising page noted.
The smaller bear may well have been the larger bear's cub. Given what happened next, that seems likely.
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Crago did the right thing: Make sure the bear aware of his presence. But it appears to have been too late; he had already gotten too close. Mother bears don't like anyone or anything near their cubs. They will take on a male grizzly half again their size to protect their babies, and next to that, a human isn't so much of a thing.
Crago said he attempted to alert the animal to his presence — but believes the close encounter may have startled the bear.
"As soon as it saw me, it charged down and attacked me," he wrote on the GoFundMe page.
The bear bit his arm and dragged him between 20 and 30 feet before running away.
That's not a predatory attack. That's a "get away from my cub" attack, intended to beat Crago up and chase him off. And it worked, after a fashion.
Again - I keep harping on this because I keep seeing people getting hurt - if you're out in the woods, or in the meadows, anywhere where may be found the big, charismatic creatures that people are so fond of seeing - for the luvva Pete, keep your distance. Daniel Crago should serve as an object lesson, in that he did nothing wrong and still got beat up by what appears to be a mama grizzly. It's well to the left of stupid to ty to approach such an animal as a bear, a bison, a moose, or even a coyote, to try to take a close-up.
Please. Keep your distance.
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