Hiker suffers injuries after surprising bear at US national park: 'Be alert'

Take care, there may be a bear.

It's been four years since Yellowstone National Park officials dealt with a bear-related incident. Park officials are now resetting the clock after a 29-year-old man's surprise encounter left him with non-life-threatening injuries to his chest and arm.

What's happening?

As reported by The New York Times, park officials have confirmed that on Sept. 16, a lone hiker was airlifted to the hospital after encountering a bear while walking the popular Turbid Lake Trail near Yellowstone Lake.

Park medics responded immediately, and officials closed the trail indefinitely, determining that the animal acted defensively rather than aggressively. 

Why is this incident important?

While wild animal attacks on humans are rare, they do happen. And it's not just in the wilderness, either. In August, a doorbell camera in Apopka, Florida, captured a nonfatal bear attack when a man was injured attempting to chase away two juvenile black bears from his home.

Experts believe that incidents like this will continue to rise as human populations grow and development encroaches on wildlife habitats. Bears will harm humans in exceptional circumstances, such as when starvation and loss of resources lead them to seek other sources of food. Between 2018 and 2023, there were 458 non-canine mammal-related fatalities in the United States.

Encounters with bears and other wildlife can be partially attributed to human activities, even among those who successfully keep their distance. Habitat destruction and food shortages caused by the effects of Earth's overheating are devastating the lives of animals — and they are biting back, traveling from mountain peaks to people-populated valleys.

Not only does this migration result in human injuries, but the bears or other animals involved are often euthanized, including recently when a woman was bitten by a black bear in a Dollar General store in New Jersey.

What's being done about it?

Yellowstone has reissued standard advice to hikers to avoid surprising bears to "be alert" to the signs of their presence, to give them space, and to always carry bear spray, per the Times. The latter is something the hiker in question used to great effect, likely saving his life.

However, this advice only really works for hikers in the wilderness. For bears exploring urban and suburban areas, the solution is less straightforward, especially considering bears have also been caught entering people's homes.

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There are some effective short-term measures to deter bear visits, but the long-term fix for protecting communities from wild animals is to protect the environment and respect biodiversity in all its forms. The bears don't mean any harm. They just want to be safe and fed.

When speaking to the CBC on the subject of climate-related bear migration, Brian Starzomski, the director of environmental studies at the University of Victoria, said: "There's a lot of pressure on nature at the moment. We talk a lot about climate change, but all of these things add up in the matter of human impact on the environment."

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