Bear Suspected Of Putting Sleeping Camp Staffer's Head In Its Mouth Killed

WARD, CO — Wildlife officers killed a bear suspected of putting a Colorado youth camp staffer's head in its mouth while he slept and then trying to drag him out of his sleeping bag.

The bear was trapped around 4:30 a.m. Monday at Glacier View Ranch where the 19-year-old staffer was attacked. The man was sleeping outside at the time. The attack happened the day before at the camp 48 miles northwest of Denver.

The teen saw the captured bear and believed it was the same one that had bit him, state Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The staffer, identified only as Dylan, said he woke up around 4 a.m. Sunday to a "crunching sound" with his head inside the mouth of the bear at Glacier View Ranch, Churchill previously said. He punched and hit the animal and other staffers shouted and swatted at the bear, which eventually left, Churchill said.

The staffer was treated briefly at a hospital and released.

He told KMGH-TV the bear dragged him 10 to 12 feet before he freed himself.

"The crunching noise, I guess, was the teeth scraping against the skull as it dug in," the man said. He teaches wilderness survival at the camp, which is owned by the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.

Dylan and the other staffers were near teepees where 12- and 13-year-old campers were sleeping. None of them were hurt.

Black bears typically are not aggressive but have attacked several people in the West in recent weeks.

A woman and her dogs were attacked on Tuesday after they apparently surprised an adult bear and her cub in a huckleberry patch in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests.

Last month, black bears killed two people in Alaska in separate attacks.

Sixteen-year-old Patrick "Jack" Cooper of Anchorage was killed after he got lost and veered off a trail during a mountain race south of Anchorage. Mine contract worker Erin Johnson of Anchorage died and her co-worker was injured in a mauling about 275 miles northeast of Anchorage.

Black bears will defend their young and have been known to paw and bite tents with food inside. After the Colorado attack wildlife officers did not find any food that would have attracted the bear so they have set bear traps in the area and plan to continue a search for the bear with scent dogs on Monday.

Wildlife officials will use DNA to verify the bear's identity and see if it was sick or hurt, which could explain the unusual behavior.

A look at the attack site. 19yo Dylan doing well after being attacked and his sleep and dragged by bear. Story at 5p on @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/8ogr1KqHHj
— Amanda del Castillo (@AmandaDTV) July 9, 2017

Photo credit: KMGH-TV via AP; AP Photo/Toby Talbot