Man, 72, fights off and kills ravaging grizzly bear

A 72 year old man picking berries in Montana shot and killed a rampaging grizzly bear after it suddenly attacked him in a surprise.

The man was left with injuries severe enough to require hospitalization, authorities announced on Friday.

He was alone on national forest land when the adult female bear charged at him on Thursday. He suffered significant injuries before he managed to kill the bear with his handgun, according to officials from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks .

The bear was likely acting defensively to protect her cubs, agency spokesperson Dillon Tabish suggested.

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Wildlife workers have set up game cameras in the area to confirm the presence of any cubs. If cubs are found, it's uncertain if they would be captured due to the difficulty in finding facilities qualified to take them, he explained.

"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 stated.

The attack occurred on the Flathead National Forest about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) north of Columbia Falls, a northwestern Montana city of approximately 5,500 residents, as per the state wildlife agency.

The victim's name and further details on his condition were not disclosed.

In related news, Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff shot and killed an adult female grizzly on Thursday after it had become accustomed to seeking out food from people and breaking into houses in and around Gardiner, a town of about 800 residents just north of Yellowstone National Park.

Pet food, garbage and barbeque grills left outside and accessible to bears contributed to the problem, according to a department statement. No people were hurt by the bear before it was shot in the Yellowstone River.

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

The Gardiner-area grizzly was killed about 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of the unrelated attack in the Columbia Falls area. An estimated 2,000 grizzlies roam western Wyoming, eastern Idaho, western Montana, while several thousand more inhabit the Canadian Rockies and Alaska.

Grizzly bears in the contiguous US are listed as threatened 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.