2 Hikers Attacked by Yellowstone Grizzly

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - Two hikers were mauled by a grizzly bear in the backcountry near Yellowstone National Park after surprising a sow with cubs, rangers said Friday — and both survived by doing exactly what the park's brochures tell them to do: play dead.

The hikers, a married couple in their 50s from out of state, were on a trail outside the park's boundary when the bear charged without warning, rangers said. The attack lasted less than a minute.

Both suffered bite and claw wounds described as serious but not life-threatening. They were able to hike partway out before a helicopter flew them to a hospital.

"The bear did what a grizzly does when you surprise her with cubs — she neutralized a threat and left," a park spokesman said. "And the hikers did the single most important thing: they dropped, covered their necks, and stayed down. It almost certainly saved them."

Rangers said the hikers carried no bear spray and were moving quietly through dense cover — not violations, but factors. The trail has been closed and warning signs posted; the sow will not be destroyed, officials said, because she was defending her young, not preying on people.

The attack was the second grizzly encounter reported in the greater Yellowstone area this season, as bears pack on calories for winter and hikers crowd the same trails for one last clear weekend.

Yellowstone's grizzly population, which rebounded from a few hundred in the 1970s to roughly 600 in the ecosystem today, was proposed this week for removal from the endangered species list — a delisting that would shift management to the states.

Wildlife advocates note that attacks, while terrifying, remain rare: the park averages about one injurious bear encounter a year against millions of visitors. "The bear didn't read the delisting proposal," one biologist said. "She just read the situation."