California hiker in stare-down with one bear gets attacked by another
SIERRA MADRE A hiker was hospitalized after being attacked by one of the two bears he encountered in Sierra Madre Monday.
CBS Los Angeles reports the 53-year-old man was attacked shortly before 11 a.m. about two miles north of the entrance to the Bailey Canyon Wildnerness Park in the 400 block of West Carter Avenue, according to Sierra Madre police and firefighters.
The hiker was hiking alone along a trail when an adult bear stood on its hind legs.
As they eyed each other, the second bear came out of nowhere and attacked, knocking down the victim, said Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The man was able to escape down the trail and walked back to his house.
“He was able to fight the bear off, and eventually the bear went in the other direction. And the hiker, like I said, was able to run down the trail,” said Sierra Madre police Chief Larry Giannone.
The victim called 911 and was transported to Methodist Hospital in Arcadia to be treated for a head injury, cuts, scratches and possible puncture wounds. He was listed in stable condition.
“The photographs that I’ve seen that are evidence now we’re not going to be able to share – he sustained what we would know as a pretty good bear attack,” the chief said.
The chief said it appeared to be a mother bear protecting her cub and bears there usually run away when they see humans, but apparently not this time.
Fish and Wildlife officials said they will euthanize the bear if they capture it.
There are usually three or four minor bear attacks around California each year, but this was the second such attack in the same general vicinity of the Angeles National Forest in recent months, officials said. In June, a man reading his iPad was hurt by a bear when it apparently tried to get into the tent he was staying in. One bear was detained for the attack but later released.
“They typically are non-aggressive,” said Chief Larry Giannone, director of public safety for the Sierra Madre police and fire departments. “We’ve had officers that have walked right by them.”
The forest sprawls over more than 1,000 square miles of the mountain range sprawling north and east of Los Angeles. It’s not uncommon for bears to make their way down into foothill suburbs along the interface between the wildland and urban areas.