A Montana guide in Montana has died after being killed by a large gray bear that apparently defended a nearby elk carcass just outside Yellowstone National Park, officials said Monday.
Charles “Carl” Mock, 40, who lived in the park gate community of West Yellowstone, died Saturday, two days after he was attacked while alone in a wooded area along the Madison River a few miles north of West Yellowstone fished, a Gallatin province said. Sheriff’s spokesperson Christine Koosman.
The male bear, which weighed at least 190 kg, was later shot dead when he charged game workers investigating the attack.
Morgan Jacobsen, spokeswoman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, found the beautiful carcass about 45 feet from the attack.
Mock, who suffered serious scalp and facial injuries, managed to call 911 after the attack and was found after searchers searched for him for about 50 minutes.
He was transported to an ambulance by the sheriff’s office with the toboggan and snowmobile before being taken to a hospital in the city of Idaho Falls, where he died.
Mock was a guide at Backcountry Adventure, which offers snowmobile rentals and tours in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding parts of the National Forest, according to the company’s Facebook page.
A fundraising website set up on behalf of Mock said he is passionate about the outdoors and a beloved guide for Yellowstone visitors.
Remains of bear spray – a Mace-like deterrent intended to protect against attacks – were found on Mock’s clothing, but officials could not determine to what extent he could use it against the bear.
The grizzly was killed Friday after he charged a group of seven game wardens and other staff as they approached the scene of the attack. Several people shot at the animal and it was killed about 18 meters from the group, Jacobsen said.
Officials said they were confident the bear killed was the one that attacked Mock.
The Yellowstone area of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming is home to more than 700 bears. Lethal attacks on humans are relatively rare, but have increased as the gray population has increased and more people have moved to rural areas near bear habitat. Since 2010, eight people, including Mock, have died in grizzlies in the Yellowstone region. Three died inside the park.
The last death before Mock was in 2018, when a hunting guide and his client attacked Wyoming and the guide died.
Grizzlies have been federally protected as an endangered species outside Alaska since 1975 after being widely exterminated by hunters and hunters early in the last century.