Bear bites woman in tent at Yellowstone, prompts action

A series of black bear encounters, including a woman getting bit through the tent she was in, has led officials in Yellowstone National Park to take action to eliminate the offending bears and educate the public on food storage. Morgan Warthin, Yellowstone public affairs specialist, told the Billings Gazette that the incidents involving black bears match the average number of conflicts for the park per year, but the encounters were more serious than average. “We re-evaluated the incident last month and looked at the two that occurred in July and felt like at this point [we’d] give the education of emphasizing proper food storage,” Warthin told the Billings Gazette. Last month at a backcountry campsite along Little Cottonwood Creek, a black bear bit into a tent and bruised a woman’s thigh, the park reported Thursday. Fortunately for the woman, the bite did not break skin because of the thickness of the tent fabric and sleeping bag...MORE