Woman pulled from tent, killed by grizzly
In a fatal attack rare for the region, a grizzly bear pulled a woman from her tent and killed her Tuesday in the Montana town of Ovando.
Wildlife agents and local law enforcement authorities were reportedly still searching for the animal late Wednesday, nearly two days after the early-morning attack occurred. The woman was identified as Leah Davis Lokan, a 65-year-old resident of Chico, Calif., who was camping overnight in the town while on a long-distance bicycling trip.
According to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Lokan and two others in a tent nearby were initially awakened by the bear at approximately 3 a.m. Tuesday, but it ran off. They then secured food they had in their tents and went back to bed. When the other two campers heard Lokan being attacked a half-hour later, they doused the grizzly with bear spray. It again ran away and not has not been seen since.
In between those two incidents, the grizzly was caught on surveillance video near where the campers were staying. It also broke into a chicken coop, and officials are hoping it decides to return there.
“At this point, our best chance for catching this bear will be culvert traps set in the area near the chicken coop where the bear killed and ate several chickens,” said Randy Arnold, an FWP regional supervisor based in Missoula.
Lokan, a registered nurse, was accompanied on the trip by her sister and a friend, another friend told The Associated Press.
“She loved these kind of adventures,” the friend, Mary Flowers, said of Lokan. “A woman in her 60s, and she’s doing this kind of stuff — she had a passion for life that was out of the ordinary.”
Ovando is located in western Montana, northwest of Helena, the state capital. It sits at the intersection of two major biking trails, making it a popular stop for cyclists.
“Unfortunately, it puts a black eye on Ovando,” Terry Sheppard, who helps run a museum in the town, said of the attack to the Daily Montanan. She added, “We support the bicycle riders each year.”
“Everybody’s pretty shaken up right now. The population here is 75 — everybody knows everybody,” Ovando saloon owner Tiffanie Zararelli said Tuesday (via the AP). “The people from Montana, we know how to be ‘bear aware.’ But anything can happen.”
The FWP used the bear’s behaviour and footprints to deduce it is a male weighing approximately 400 pounds. DNA was collected from the scene, and should a bear with matching DNA get caught in a trap, it will be killed, the agency said.
A helicopter equipped with infrared technology was also employed in the effort to track down the grizzly. A spokesman for the FWP did not immediately respond to a request Wednesday evening for an update on the search.
Tuesday’s attack does not represent “normal bear behaviour,” FWP official Greg Lemon said Wednesday. “Usually, human and bear conflicts stem from bears protecting food, female bears protecting cubs, or surprise encounters that result in the bear feeling threatened and attacking the person. Going into a campground and attacking a person,” he added, “is not a natural instinct.”