Bear Believed Responsible For Attack On Camper Trapped, Euthanized

WARD, Colo. (CBS4) - A spokesperson with Colorado Parks & Wildlife confirms that wildlife officials trapped a 280-pound male black bear early Monday in Boulder County.

The bear is believed to be the one that attacked a 19-year-old camper at Glacier View Ranch north of Ward 24 hours earlier.

The bear has been euthanized.

"I never thought I would be attacked by a bear," Dylan told CBS4's Melissa Garcia. "I woke up to a crunching sound and a lot of pain... The bear had a hold of my head and was dragging me across the ground."

Dylan, who teaches wildlife survival skills to the campers at Glacier View Ranch, fought back with all of the strength he had.

"I just started hitting the bear as hard as I could," Dylan said. "And I found its eye, and I started poking it with my fingers...and it dragged me for about 10 feet before I was able to get it off of me.

Other staff members helped to chase the bear off.

Dylan, with nine staples sealing his head wounds, came to the scene of the bear's trapping Monday morning. According to CPW's Jennifer Churchill, Dylan believed the trapped bear was the one that attacked him.

Churchill says the bear's body will be taken to the division's Wildlife Health Lab in Fort Collins for a necropsy. The goals of wildlife officials are twofold: To definitively identify the bear as the one responsible for the attack, and to explore potential physical causes for the bear's behavior.

"Sometimes there's not," Churchill said. "Sometimes it's just an aggressive, brazen bear."

Churchill recalled an attack in the 1970s in Colorado. The necropsy in that case found a plastic bucket in the bear's stomach. Wildlife officials suspect that condition contributed to the bear's attack.