The grizzly bear believed to be the one that pulled a woman from her tent and killed her earlier this week was fatally shot, wildlife officials in Montana announced on Friday.
Federal wildlife workers set up traps near a chicken coop located nearly 2 miles away from where the woman was killed. The crew used night vision goggles to see during the hunt and shot the bear shortly after midnight, a spokesman for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks told the Washington Examiner.
“Based on the behavior of the bear … the size, the coloration of the bear, we’re pretty confident that this is the bear that was responsible for the attack on Tuesday morning,” said Greg Lemon, a spokesman for the department. He noted tracks found at the site of the coop matched tracks found near the deceased woman’s tent.
The 65-year-old woman from California, Leah Davis Lokan, was passing through the state on a long-distance bicycle trip and stopped in the rural town of Ovando before the deadly encounter early on July 6, the department said in a statement.
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Two nearby campers called the sheriff’s office around 4:15 a.m. on Tuesday after they awoke to sounds of the attack, according to Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles.
The bear first woke the campers up at 3 a.m., so they removed food from their tents and secured it away, according to Lemon.
Officials said video footage from a local business recorded a bear Monday night, and someone also reported a bear got into a separate chicken coop.
“Grizzly bears are common in the Blackfoot Valley where Ovando is located,” said officials with the department.
Still, fatal bear attacks are rare in the region where the campers were visiting, Lemon told the Washington Examiner. There have been three in the past two decades, including the mauling on Tuesday, according to data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Lemon cautioned the public to be aware bears may return to a campsite or domestic location twice, advising anyone camping or hiking to carry bear spray.
“Never camp with food in your tent, always store your food in a secure and safe place. So, it can be a vehicle,” Lemon said. “If you’re in the back country, that means hanging it in a tree well away from where you’re sleeping.”
