Bears take over national park as ‘screams heard over lake’ in month of attacks

Officials at Glacier National Park in Montana have had to close parts of the nature reserve after a string of grizzly bear attacks on tourists and hikers over the month

Grizzly bears have taken over a segment of Glacier National Park in Montana. Countless attacks on hikers by the savage beasts over the last one week has resulted in park officials stepping in and closing the South Shore Trail.

Since May 13, there have been separate grizzly bear incidents recorded by hikers. On May 25 two hikers reported seeing two bears next to the edge of the park’s lake. Although they got away from the deadly animals, the tourists had to pull out bear spray to deal with the threat.

Just this Thursday a hiker was left needing medical attention after being attacked by a bear. Devin Dufrene, his sister, and a group of three college students were walking along the north shore of Lake Josephine when “we heard a scream,” Dufrene, 21, told SFGATE in a Facebook message. “Shortly after a person from the group in front of us was running back screaming, ‘bear attack.’”

On Friday the park confirmed the attack and informed the public it had shut down the path where the bear attack had occurred. On May 13, 33-year-old hiker Anthony Pollio was found death with injuries consistent with a bear attack.

“The sequence of events leading to the bear encounter remains under investigation; however, evidence suggests that this was a surprise encounter,” a park news release from May 9 stated.

The commonality of the recent attacks is unusual – there hadn’t been a fatal bear attack in the park since 1998.

That incident involved park concession worker Craig Dahl who was killed by a sow and two cubs. Last month a separate incident occurred at Yellowstone Park when two brothers were hospitalised following a run-in with a grizzly.

Most bear attacks usually happen when bears are surprised and react defensively to a human getting too close to its food or cubs.