On August 7, a body was found on a trail in Yellowstone National Park. It seems a man was hiking on a popular off-trail area when he came across a female bear and her cubs. What happened next isn’t clear, but it resulted in his death. Now, Yellowstone officials have captured a bear along with one of her cubs and are threatening to euthanize them if forensic tests point to the mother as the man’s attacker.
On average, 3.5 million people visit Yellowstone a year. The bear population is estimated at between 600-800 within the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. And with all those bears and people coming into contact, there have been only eight bear fatalities in the past hundred years.