A grizzly bear attacked and killed a 38-year-old mountain biker as he was riding along a trail just outside Glacier National Park, Montana authorities said.
Brad Treat and another rider were in the Halfmoon Lakes area of the Flathead National Forest Wednesday when they apparently surprised the bear, Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said.
The bear knocked Treat off his bike, and the second rider left to look for help, Curry said.
Authorities found Treat’s body at the scene, but not the bear. Wildlife and law-enforcement officials were searching for the grizzly Wednesday evening.
Treat was a law-enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service.
“Brad was an integral member of our area law enforcement team and a friend to us all,” Curry said.
Treat grew up in nearby Kalispell, where he was a standout distance runner in high school, his former coach, Paul Jorgenson, told the Flathead Beacon newspaper.
“He was a really good runner but he was also a kind-hearted person who cared about people,” Jorgenson told the Beacon.
The second rider, who was not identified, was not injured. Authorities have closed the area, which is about 3 miles away from Glacier’s west entrance, for public safety.
Grizzlies in the Lower 48 states have been designated a threatened species since the 1970s, but their numbers are increasing and so are conflicts between humans and bears.
The grizzlies in the Glacier area among about 1,000 bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which also includes the Bob Marshall Wilderness south of the park. At least 700 more grizzlies live in and around Yellowstone National Park, which is roughly 360 miles south of Glacier.
Six people have been fatally mauled by bears in the Northern Rockies since 2010, but those deaths were mainly in the Yellowstone area. Glacier officials say there are usually one or two non-lethal encounters between bears and humans each year inside the park.
Before Wednesday, there had been 10 bear-related human deaths in Glacier since the park was created in 1910. The last was in 1998, when three bears killed and partially ate a park vendor employee while he was hiking.
In the most well-known Glacier attacks, bears killed two people in different parts of the park in a single night in 1967. Those attacks became the subject of a 1969 book by Jack Olsen titled “Night of the Grizzlies,” and later a documentary by the same name.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Man killer. Not man eater. Drama much in the headline?
You scare me, I’ll defend myself. That is what that bear did, exactly. I’m on the bears side.
My bet it was a sow with cubs. Not a man anything just a mom protecting it’s young. Rule is a person is to be wearing bells or other source of noise so the person can be heard by the bear. Leave the bear a lone especially if it did not attack for food.
Humans have obliterated so much widlife habitat there’s no place left for the animals. Ride your bike on the roads and streets of urban areas man has already destroyed. And watch out for thugs/drug dealers. They are 1,000 times worse than bears.
I deal with black bears almost everyday. I don’t bother them and they mostly keep away. At times they will come right up to the
house, but a loud noise or a shot in the ground and they are gone. I do carry a .45 ALL THE TIME. But not just for bears.
The picture to the left of the story title they have of a bear walking on a river bed is a Black Bear; BIG difference from a Grizz !
After the Democrats read this we will need a Bear Control Law.
This post may not have anything to do with this article but is being included to inform people of how they are being used by the current Government Administration of Barack Obama supported by Hillary Clinton.
I think all people should read the item below and in particular if you are an Obama or Clinton supporter.
After you read this ask yourself if you are a Useful Idiot and are being manipulated by these people
who will lead you to your own destruction. If the answer is YES its not too late to change.
Beware the Useful Idiots
submitted by Garret Geer
Recall that Hillary did her college thesis on his writings and Obama writes about him in his books.
Saul Alinsky died about 43 years ago, but his writings influenced those in political control of our nation today.
Died: June 12, 1972, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Education: University of Chicago
Spouse: Irene Alinsky
Books: Rules for Radicals, Reveille for Radicals
Anyone out there think that this stuff isn’t happening today in the U.S.?
All eight rules are currently in play.
How to create a social state by Saul Alinsky:
There are eight levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a social state. The first is the most important.
1) Healthcare – Control healthcare and you control the people.
2) Poverty – Increase the Poverty level as high as possible; poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control– Remove the ability to defend themselves from the government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income).
6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.
7) Religion – Remove the belief in the God from the government and schools.
8) Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent, and it will be easier to take (tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.
Does any of this sound like what is happening to the United States?
Alinsky merely simplified Vladimir Lenin’s original scheme for world conquest by communism, under Russian rule. Stalin described his converts as “Useful Idiots.”
The Useful Idiots have destroyed every nation in which they have seized power and control. It is presently happening at an alarming rate in the U.S.
“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”
Everyone who opposes Obama and Clinton should write to our Muslim Terrorist President and Attorney General on their respective websites and tell them it is time to stop protecting Hillary Clinton and indict her for the criminal she is. Enough of this cover up and stalling and subverting the laws of the land. Either obey your oaths or resign immediately.
Also, I would encourage everyone who is comfortable with doing so to purchase as many firearms and ammunition as they can afford to not only protect themselves from criminals and terrorists but from our Government as well. Buy yourself a semi automatic handgun and rifle at a minimum and get prepared to defend yourself.
I myself find those mountain bikers to be pains in the ass.
All except LibNuts have to agree.
I lived in Montana most of my adult life and logged in Glacier Park and Kalispell Areas.I can tell the one poster, Marc Lizotte that the Bear in the Picture to the left is most assuredly a Grizzly bear. Please note the large head,the long silver snout and the clearly defined hump on the animal’s shoulders.
The article correctly called the second “rider” and “unidentified”, one could not Identify this person as any kind of friend. “He rode off for help”. He or she was the help and was already onsite. Had I or any other friend been there, the Bear at the very least would have been wearing a bicycle, perhaps giving them a window to retreat or at least fight back on a two to one odds.
Lastly I want to comment on the james schnarr post, Go to MT check the vastness of Glacier, Yellowstone, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, then go to Northern California check out the Trinity Alps Wilderness and the 1million acre Redwood Set-Aside, just to name a few of the vast places the poor animals have left to roam. One million people could be in 1million acres of redwoods and never see each other.
Bill Vann