72-year-old man defends himself and kills aggressive grizzly bear that attacked him while picking berries

A 72-year-old man fought off and killed a grizzly bear when it attacked him while he was picking blueberries in Montana.

The man, whose identity has not yet been released, was alone on national forest land when the adult woman attacked him Thursday, seriously injuring him, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials said.

During the struggle, he managed to fire a pistol and kill the bear before it was taken to a local hospital.

According to agency spokesman Dillon Tabish, the bear was likely a mother defending her cubs. Wildlife officials have begun searching the area for cubs, but if any are found, it is not yet clear whether the orphaned animals will be captured and kept in captivity.

“Depending on their age, we may leave them in the wild because they have a better chance of survival there than having to euthanize them,” Tabish said.

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

On the same day the man was attacked, the Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department shot and killed an adult female grizzly bear that had been breaking into homes and stealing food in the area around the town of Gardner, north of Yellowstone National Park.

The bear was shot in the Yellowstone River, about 300 miles south of the attack in the Columbia Falls area, and thus did not injure anyone.

The bear has become accustomed to finding food in garbage and on outdoor grills, the authority said.

Sometimes wildlife managers capture and relocate grizzly bears that are known to cause problems for people, but they kill bears that are involved in predatory behavior against people or that are believed to continue to cause problems even when moved to another area.

About 2,000 grizzly bears roam western Wyoming, eastern Idaho and western Montana, while several thousand more live in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and Alaska.

Grizzly bears, which can weigh up to 318 kilograms, are listed as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act throughout the United States.

In the Rocky Mountain states, elected officials are pressuring federal authorities to lift the animals’ protected status, which could open the door to hunting in the future.

With post wires