A bear attacked and severely injured a shepherd in a backcountry camp about 23 miles northeast of Durango. Wildlife officers say the bear was tracked and killed.
The incident occurred Tuesday morning close to a camp within the Weminuche Wilderness above Lemon Reservoir, Colorado Parks and Wildlife stated in a information launch.
The 35-year-old sufferer, a shepherd with a grazing allow for the San Juan Nationwide Forest, suffered chew wounds to his head, wounds to his left hand and arm, extreme lacerations to his left hip space and scratches on his again. He was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Heart in Durango after which flown to Grand Junction for surgical procedure.
“That is an unlucky incident and we’re grateful the sufferer was capable of contact assist to get emergency companies deployed and that he was capable of be extracted to obtain essential medical care,” stated CPW Space Wildlife Supervisor Adrian Archuleta, within the launch.
About 1 a.m. Tuesday, the shepherd was woken by a camp disturbance involving a black bear. He fired a .30-30 caliber rifle on the bear earlier than it attacked him, wildlife officers stated. Following the assault, the person crawled to his tent and contacted a cousin who summoned assist.
Wildlife officers have been contacted about 4 a.m. and have been on scene about 8:30 a.m., the discharge stated. A blood path and the person’s rifle have been discovered, and DNA samples have been collected from the scene the place two lifeless sheep, with wounds constant to a bear assault, have been positioned.
About 5 p.m. Tuesday, an agent from the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Well being Inspection Service (APHIS) with a group of canines helped wildlife officers monitor the bear. Hounds pursued the bear to the Florida River as CPW officers adopted in steep and treacherous terrain keying in on GPS indicators from the canines’ collars. Simply earlier than 11 p.m., the APHIS agent shot and killed the bear.
“This can be a troublesome a part of the job,” Archuleta stated. “However relating to accidents to people on account of a predator assault, human well being and security is our high precedence.”
The bear, an 8-year-old boar, weighed about 250 kilos. DNA samples collected on the assault scene have been despatched to the CPW Wildlife Well being Lab in Fort Collins for testing to check with the bear that was tracked and shot.
“Till we get outcomes again from the lab concerning DNA testing, we will’t 100% verify that that is the offending bear,” Archuleta stated. “However based mostly on the knowledge we now have at this level, we really feel assured that it’s the offending bear.”
Tuesday’s incident is the primary reported bear assault in Colorado in 2023 and the primary in La Plata County since April 2021, in accordance with CPW.
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