A man kills a grizzly bear in Montana after it attacked him while picking berries

A man picking blueberries in Montana shot and killed a grizzly bear after it attacked him and injured him so badly that he had to be hospitalized.

The 72-year-old man was alone when the adult woman attacked him Thursday. He killed the bear with a handgun, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said in a statement Friday.

The attack occurred in the Flathead National Forest about 2 miles north of Columbia Falls, a city in northwest Montana with about 5,500 residents, according to the state wildlife agency.

Female grizzlies are known to attack to defend their young. Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials were trying to determine if this grizzly had cubs.

The department was unable to provide further information, including the man’s identity and his condition, on Friday, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials shot and killed an adult female grizzly bear on Thursday after the animal became accustomed to searching people for food and breaking into homes in and around Gardiner, a town of about 800 people north of Yellowstone National Park.

Pet food, garbage and grills left outside and accessible to bears contributed to the problem, according to a statement from the agency. No one was injured before the bear was shot in the Yellowstone River.

Wildlife managers often capture and relocate grizzly bears known to cause problems for people, but sometimes they also kill bears they believe will continue to cause problems even when relocated.

The Gardiner-area grizzly was killed about 500 kilometers south of the unrelated attack in the Columbia Falls area. An estimated 2,000 grizzlies roam western Wyoming, eastern Idaho and western Montana, while several thousand more live in the Canadian Rockies and Alaska.

Grizzly bears in the contiguous United States are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

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Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming.