GREAT FALLS — A mother grizzly bear attacked a boater who inadvertently came between the parent and her cub, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks official said.
A helicopter transported the man to a hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries following the attack Sunday morning, The Great Falls Tribune reports.
Greg Lemon, a Fish, Wildlife and Parks department spokesman, said a man who was a member of a group taking boats down the Sun River was attacked around 8:30 a.m. after he stepped to some bushes without being aware of the animals.
“He put himself between the sow and the cub,” Lemon said. “The sow saw him and immediately attacked him, bit him in a couple of places.”
The group was preparing to leave a section of state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation land above the Willow Creek Reservoir where they camped the previous night.
“Right now the scene has been cleared and the sow swam the river and the cub stayed on the other side, but we’re not going to take any further action with the bears,” Lemon said Sunday afternoon.
The attack was the second encounter between a grizzly and a human on the Rocky Mountain Front this spring.
A female grizzly bear attacked a hiker west of Dupuyer in April after the hiker encountered the mother and her cubs. The bear attacked and bit the hiker in the thigh and was later killed by authorities, officials said.