There has been an increase in the number of bear-related incidents over the past few months, with the latest involving a grizzly bear attacking and killing a Chico woman camping in western Montana early Tuesday.
The bear reportedly wandered into the area where Leah Davis Lokan was camping between 4 and 5 a.m. in Ovando, Montana, just 60 miles northwest of Helena, according to Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks spokesman Greg Lemon, USA Today reported.
According to Sheriff Gavin Roselles, the bear had wandered in and out of the campsite a couple of different times. CBS in San Fransisco reported that witnesses told officials that Lokan and her fellow campers even disposed of any food inside their tents to not attract the animal.
Unfortunately, the 400-pound grizzle returned and pulled Lokan from her tent, killing her.
Since then, law enforcement has been on the hunt. Authorities have not yet found the bear, but a team of law enforcement and wildlife specialists are continuing to search for the animal.
"Our first concern is the community's well-being. The next step is to find the bear," park spokesman Lemon said.
Mary Flowers, a friend of the victim’s from Chico, told CBS that Lokan was a registered nurse who had worked at a hospital in Chico and was looking forward to her Montana bike trip for months. Lokan done long-distance bike trips before. She was accompanied on this trip by her sister and a friend.
“She loved these kind of adventures. A woman in her 60s, and she’s dong this kind of stuff —- she had a passion for life that was out of the ordinary,” Flowers said.
Residents in the Ovando area are used to seeing bears and interacting with them. A saloon owner, Tiffanie Zavarelli, said it was the first fatal bear mauling she knew of in the community.
"Everybody's pretty shaken up right now. The population here is 75 – everybody knows everybody," Zararelli said, "The people from Montana, we know how to be 'bear aware.' But anything can happen."
This is just the latest in bear encounters across the country. Late last month, a family of bears joined beachgoers at a beach in South Lake Tahoe.
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Not all encounters have been as friendly, however. In June, a man was forced to shoot a bear that broke into his home and attacked him in the early hours of the morning.
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In April, a guide was killed by a grizzly while fishing in Yellowstone National Park along the Montana border.
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In September, there was also an incident of a Grizzly killing a hunter in an Alaska National Park.
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In the Northern Rockies, grizzly bear conflicts over the past decade have continually increased as the federally protected animals have expanded into new areas. The number of people living in those areas has also increased.
Currently, grizzly bears can be trapped and killed if they are deemed a public safety threat. But the animal, which once had a population of 50,000 in western North America from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Plains, has been on the threatened species list since 1975.
This is one reason that elected officials in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming are being asked to legalize hunting the animals, which they say would help population control and lower attacks.