Man Taken to Hospital After Bear Attack Near Alberta–BC Border

A grizzly bear mother and her cub walk near Pelican Creek in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, in a file photo. Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

A man in his 40s is in hospital in Calgary after being attacked by a bear near the Alberta–B.C. border, according to the RCMP.

The man was hiking in the Crowsnest Pass, about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Calgary, when he was mauled by a bear. The incident happened on Sept. 13, Crowsnest RCMP said in a Facebook post.

The man was with another person when the encounter happened, police said. The incident took place northwest of Coleman in the Allison Creek Road area.

“A hiker had sent a Garmin SOS which led to a male being transported by STARS (air ambulance)” to Foothills Medical Centre, said Cpl. Gina Slaney.

Slaney said the RCMP were alerted to the incident at 1:20 p.m. local time. She said it was not clear if the animal was a grizzly or black bear.

A spokesperson with Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Services said that Fish and Wildlife officers were also responding to the situation and assisting police in the area.

The bear attack comes after another one northwest of Calgary in August that left a bow hunter with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the post.

Police said that a grizzly bear with cubs attacked the hunter, who was able to use bear spray to thwart the attack, RCMP said.

“DNA samples from the incident indicated the grizzly involved was the same bear that killed 59-year-old University of Calgary professor David Lertzman in May 2021 near the village of Waiparous, northwest of Calgary,” the social media post said.

That bear has not been caught by Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers, RCMP said.

In July, Alberta’s government announced it was creating a network of wildlife management responders who would be able to offer rapid conflict response to situations such as bear attacks.

There were three bear attacks in 2020, while nine attacks by black bears and grizzlies were recorded in 2021. There have been a total of 104 attacks between 2000 and 2021, according to government estimates.

There are currently more than 1,150 grizzly bears in the province, up from around 800 in 2021. Their growing number is causing them to move into more populated rural areas, according to authorities.

In 2023, a couple and their dog were killed in a grizzly bear attack in Banff National Park.

At that time, Parks Canada said it had received an alert from a GPS device that indicated a bear attack had happened, but weather prevented a team from deploying for about five hours.

The bodies of the victims were discovered when a team arrived. The team euthanized a bear in the area that had been behaving aggressively.

Carolina Avendano contributed to this article.