72-year-old man fights off, kills aggressive grizzly bear that attacked him while picking berries

A 72-year-old man fought off and killed a grizzly bear that attacked him while he was picking huckleberries in Montana.

The man, who has not been identified, was alone on national forest land when the adult female charged at him on Thursday, leaving him with serious injuries, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials said.

During the struggle, he able to fire off a handgun and kill the bear before he was rushed to a local hospital.

The bear was likely a mother trying to defend her cubs, according to agency spokesperson Dillon Tabish. Wildlife workers have begun searching for cubs in the area — but if any are found it’s not clear if the orphaned animals would be captured and placed in captivity.

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“Depending on the age, we might leave them in the wild because they have a better chance of survival, rather than have to euthanize them,” Tabish said.

The attack happened in the Flathead National Forest about 2 miles north of Columbia Falls, a northwestern Montana city of about 5,500 people, according to the state wildlife agency.

The same day the man was attacked, Fish, Wildlife & Parks shot an adult female grizzly bear that had been breaking into homes and stealing food around the town of Gardner just north of Yellowstone National Park.

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No people were hurt by the bear, which was shot dead in the Yellowstone River about 300 miles south of the attack in the Columbia Falls area.

The bear had become accustomed to finding food in garbage and barbecue grills left outside, the department said.

Wildlife managers sometimes capture and move grizzlies that are known to cause problems for people. But they will kill bears involved in predatory attacks on people or if they are deemed likely to keep causing problems regardless of being moved to another area.

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Some 2,000 grizzlies roam western Wyoming, eastern Idaho, western Montana, while several thousand more inhabit the Canadian Rockies and Alaska.

Grizzly bears, which can grow to be up to 700 pounds, are listed as a threatened species in the contiguous US under the Endangered Species Act.

Elected officials in Rocky Mountain states are pressing federal officials to lift their protected status, which could open the door to future hunting.

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