A bear injured a 29-year-old man who was hiking alone at Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday afternoon, the first such episode there in more than four years.
In what park officials called a “surprise encounter,” the hiker was on Turbid Lake Trail near Yellowstone Lake when the bear appeared, according to a statement from Yellowstone National Park. He used bear spray on the animal when it made contact with him, but it injured his chest and left arm.
National Park Service medics responded and the man was flown to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, the park said. It added that the trail would be closed indefinitely and that the park’s bear management staff would sweep the area to make sure no other hikers were on the trail.
Park officials said that the bear had acted defensively and issued standard warnings to visitors, encouraging them to be on alert for signs of bears and to avoid hiking alone.
“Because this incident was a defensive reaction by the bear during a surprise encounter, the park will not be taking any management action against the bear,” the park said in the statement.
There are estimated to be more than 100 bears with home ranges that overlap with the park’s roughly 3,400-square-mile expanse, and there are more than 1,000 bears in what is known as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which stretches across Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
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