Grizzly bears wound 4 in and near Yellowstone

A couple of violent encounters with grizzly bears in and near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming have left four people wounded.

In the first incident, a sow grizzly lunged at a group of four hikers in Yellowstone after a grizzly cub met them on a trail Thursday morning, the National Park Service said. A minute-long tussle ensued with the mother bear, leaving one person with injuries that were treated at the scene and another with bite and claw marks that required hospital care.

All four were able to hike back out to the trail-head themselves.

Roughly 70 miles away, in a valley near Island Park, Idaho, two Bureau of Land Management contract workers doing a forest health assessment were attacked by a grizzly bear Thursday, Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Gregg Losinski said.

One man required stitches for bite wounds on his thigh and buttocks. Another suffered bite wounds on his hand while he tried to use bear spray.

Losinski said the bear was probably resting in a day bed when he was startled by the workers. An abundance of insects have recently attracted bears to the area, Losinski said, which may have caused another nearby attack two weeks ago.

Officials were on the scene trying to collect DNA samples from hair left by the bear, which Losinski said helps them track grizzlies involved in violent run-ins.

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