Outdoor News Daily

Two people were injured and one person was killed in separate bear attacks that occurred early Wednesday morning at a national forest campground east of Cooke City near the northeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials are investigating the attacks at Soda Butte Campground in the Gallatin National Forest that are believed to have occurred about 2 a.m.

According to a Park County Sheriff’s dispatch record, a Park County Sheriff’s deputy and a FWP game warden were dispatched to the Soda Butte Campground about 2:30 a.m. Investigators found a man dead at the campground at 4:30 a.m.

Two other people, a male and a female, were reportedly bitten and later treated at a hospital in Cody, Wyo. The identities of the victims have not been released.

FWP officials, in cooperation with the Gallatin National Forest, the National Park Service and the Park County Sherriff’s Office, have spent much of the day at the site collecting forensic evidence of the attacks.

Officials from the agencies will hold a community meeting at the Cooke City Chamber of Commerce Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the incident.

“The camp sites are being combed for evidence,” said FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim “We’re not certain if it was one bear or more than one, and we haven’t determined if it was a grizzly or black bear. We’ve extracted DNA samples from evidence found on site. This will help us identify the bear or bears involved, once captured.”

Tents were ripped or damaged during the attacks, yet no food was found in the tent of the dead man or in the tents of the two injured victims. “Everyone appeared to have followed all food storage regulations,” Aasheim said.

The Soda Butte Campground, the nearby Chief Joseph and Colter campgrounds, also in the Gallatin National Forest, are closed.

“This is not typical bear behavior. It’s odd. It’s not normal,” Aasheim said.

FWP officials have set a number of traps in anticipation of the animal’s return tonight.

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