Woman was victim of rare predatory grizzly attack
HELENA, Montana — A California woman who was fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in western Montana last summer was the victim of a rare predatory attack by a food-conditioned bear that was likely attracted to food in and near her tent and scents left behind from recent Independence Day picnics, wildlife officials said.
Leah Davis Lokan, 65, of Chico, was pulled out of her tent and mauled in the pre-dawn hours of July 6, 2021 in the small town of Ovando, along the banks of the Blackfoot River, made famous by the movie A River Runs Through It. The town borders a huge expanse of forested land that is home to an estimated 1,000 grizzlies.
About an hour before the mauling, the bear had approached the tents of Lokan and a Texas couple who were camping behind a museum. They were able to scare the bear away.
Lokan declined an offer to go sleep at a hotel where her sister and their friend were staying, investigators reported. The women were participating in a long-anticipated bike ride along the Great Divide Mountain Bike route.
After the first encounter, Lokan took some packaged snack foods and dry lentils out of her tent and retrieved a can of bear spray, the investigation found.
However, her toiletries — in two bags that had previously held dried blueberries and still smelled like berries — remained in the tent, investigators said.
The Texas couple awakened just after 4 a.m. to noises that indicated Lokan was being attacked.
The 189 kilogram male grizzly bear broke Lokan’s neck and severed her spine, an autopsy found, causing instantaneous death.
The bear that mauled Lokan was shot thee days later while raiding a chicken coop near Ovando.