by the Left Coast Rebel

Fox News just reported that the man killed in Wednesday’s bear attack near Yellowstone National Park (that I blogged about here) has been identified. His name was Kevin Kramer and he was from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Authorities have also confirmed that the bear responsible for the attack was a female grizzly bear. Montana officials have captured that female grizzly, along with 2 of her cubs as well. The same bear attacked a teenage woman and a Canadian boy.

The Grand Rapids Press tells us a little more on Kevin Kramer from his mother-in-law:

Kammer’s mother-in-law, Phyllis Howard, of Grand Rapids, said he enjoyed fishing, camping and kayaking. Kammer was a father of four, ages 8,9, 15 and 19, with the two youngest attending All Saints Academy, another attending City High School and the oldest at Grand Rapids Community College.

“He was a wonderful father. He took good care of his kids,” she said.

Howard said Kammer went to Yellowstone for a trip on his own.

“He always wanted to go out there, and he had an opportunity to go,” she said. “That was always a dream of his to go out there.”

The PortClinton News Herald also has a story from the female survivor, Deb Freeley of London, Ontario, recounting that she ‘played dead’ as the grizzly bear attacked:

COOKE CITY, Mont. (AP) — A woman who was attacked by a bear in the middle of the night at a busy campground was bitten on her arm and leg before she instinctively played dead so the animal would leave her alone, she said Thursday.

At least one bear rampaged through the campground near Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday, killing one man and injuring Deb Freele of London, Ontario, and another man.

Appearing on the network morning talk shows from a Wyoming hospital, Freele said she woke up just before the bear bit her arm.

“I screamed, he bit harder, I screamed harder, he continued to bite,” she said.

Her survival instinct kicked in, and she realized that the screaming wasn’t working.

“I told myself, play dead,” she said. “I went totally limp. As soon as I went limp, I could feel his jaws get loose and then he let me go.”

ABC video of Canadian Deb Freeley’s first hand account:



Updated: Newsy has more firsthand account of the Grizzly bear attack:

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by the Left Coast Rebel

This is very sad, horrifying and shocking. 15 years ago I traversed this area and know that bears (not to mention other myriad forms of formidable wildlife) are quite abundant. Perhaps the most shocking thing to me was that many tourists (in Yellowstone, especially) did not respect the wildlife.

Of course, I’m not saying that is the case here. Montana’s KRTV reports:

Authorities continue piecing together details about an overnight bear attack near Cooke City that killed one person and injured two others.

MT FWP officials say that it appears the victims were attacked separately and were not camped in the same location of the Soda Butte Campground.

The attacks are believed to have occurred sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m., and authorities believe that only one bear is responsible for the attacks.

Aasheim says the man who died had been dragged from his tent and was found at the western edge of the campground.

A woman suffered severe lacerations from bites on her arms, while another man was bitten on his calf. Both are being treated for their injures at a Cody, Wyoming hospital. Their injuries are not life threatening. Officials say the man was able to drive himself to Cody, while the woman was transported by ambulance.

Authorities have not yet released the names of the people involved.

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And the AP follows up as well:

HELENA, Mont. — At least one bear rampaged through a campground Wednesday near Yellowstone National Park in the middle of the night, killing one person and injuring two others during a terrifying attack that forced people to hide in their cars as the animal tore through tents.

Three separate attacks left a male dead and a female and another male injured at the Soda Butte campground. The female suffered severe lacerations from bites on her arms, and the surviving male was bitten on his calf. Both were hospitalized in Cody, Wyo.

Wildlife officials did not release the identities or ages of the victims. A response team was being sent to piece together what happened.

“We don’t know if it was one bear, two bears, a black bear or grizzly bear,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said. “Obviously, the bear’s gone now. Will it come back tonight? That’s the question.”

Authorities were setting traps and seeking bear hair, saliva and droppings while measuring the bite wounds of victims to determine the type and number of bears involved in the attack.

Park County dispatchers took a 911 call early Wednesday from a male reporting that a bear had bitten his ankle and was tearing up tents, Aasheim said. Dispatchers got two more calls, including one from a man who said a bear bit the leg of his daughter’s boyfriend.

At 3:50 a.m., park officials went through the campground to advise campers to get into their cars. A half-hour later, the dead male was discovered at a campsite. Authorities then evacuated the campground, sending campers to nearby hotels.

It was not immediately clear how many people were in the campground at the time.

The same campground was the site of a 2008 attack in which a grizzly bear bit and injured a man sleeping in a tent. A young adult female grizzly was captured in a trap four days after the attack and transported to a bear research center at Washington State University in Pullman.