Cry from the woods saves cyclist after black bear mauling
Dave Ebner
Globe and Mail
__________
Calgary, Alberta(Canada):
At dusk Friday, on a wooded single-track mountain-bike trail just outside of Banff, a 41-year-old man riding alone encountered an underweight, young male black bear.
The attack was swift and ferocious, with the bear dragging his victim 20 metres off the trail, mauling his chest and arm.
But the man's cries for help were quickly heard by two other riders who, by good fortune, were on the same rugged trail and had found the victim's bike and broken blue helmet.
"I don't think there's any question if we didn't show up, it would have been a different story," Robin Borstmayer, one of riders, told reporters on the weekend.
"It was a cry for help from the woods," said Robert Earl, the other rescuer.
Concluding that the bear was between the victim and themselves, they scrambled for help and an RCMP officer and a park warden were soon on the scene, finding the victim in the woods conscious and bleeding, with the bear circling nearby.
The bear was shot and killed.
"The bear didn't move off when they approached," Ian Syme, chief park warden for Banff National Park, said yesterday in an interview. Such behaviour, he said, is unusual -- but does not indicate a trend, despite the incident and the fact a woman was killed by a grizzly bear last June outside Canmore.
May 15, 2006
Dave Ebner
Globe and Mail
__________
Calgary, Alberta(Canada):
At dusk Friday, on a wooded single-track mountain-bike trail just outside of Banff, a 41-year-old man riding alone encountered an underweight, young male black bear.
The attack was swift and ferocious, with the bear dragging his victim 20 metres off the trail, mauling his chest and arm.
But the man's cries for help were quickly heard by two other riders who, by good fortune, were on the same rugged trail and had found the victim's bike and broken blue helmet.
"I don't think there's any question if we didn't show up, it would have been a different story," Robin Borstmayer, one of riders, told reporters on the weekend.
"It was a cry for help from the woods," said Robert Earl, the other rescuer.
Concluding that the bear was between the victim and themselves, they scrambled for help and an RCMP officer and a park warden were soon on the scene, finding the victim in the woods conscious and bleeding, with the bear circling nearby.
The bear was shot and killed.
"The bear didn't move off when they approached," Ian Syme, chief park warden for Banff National Park, said yesterday in an interview. Such behaviour, he said, is unusual -- but does not indicate a trend, despite the incident and the fact a woman was killed by a grizzly bear last June outside Canmore.
May 15, 2006
