Outdoor News Daily

A hunter identified as Virgil Massey, 52, of Barstow, California was mauled by a bear in the Corwin Springs region. It’s still unclear whether it was a grizzly or black bear that attacked Massey.

Massey was hunting the timbers above the Yellowstone River when the bear attacked at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Massey was transported to Salt Lake City for massive facial injuries that came with just a single swipe of the bear’s paw said Edwin Johnson, who was Massey’s outfitter for the hunt.

Chuck Schwartz, head of the Bozeman-based Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, noted that the area along the Yellowstone River can be very attractive to both grizzly and black bears due to an abundance of crops that grow along the river. Schwartz also mentions the learned habit of association where the bears have begun to realize that areas that experience hunting also provide food. The food is not the actual hunter. The bears associate the hunting with gut piles and entrails left behind when a hunter field dresses their animal.

“They’re moving to a good food source,” he said. “Over the years, they have learned where these hunting areas are and they go there.”

Massey, was about two miles from the river when he was attacked.

Johnson said he has seen bear scat in the area with lots of apples, and two miles is not a great distance for a grizzly bear to travel.

The majority of bear attacks that have taken place this year in Yellowstone National Park have been located around the Park County area.

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