Rangers have killed the last of three grizzly bears that consumed the remains of a hiker last month, the National Park Service said Friday.
Officials said the male bear shot Thursday night in Glacier National Park's Upper Two Medicine Valley bluff-charged a group of hikers earlier this week. The bear's mother and sibling were killed earlier."The loss of human life and the subsequent killing of a grizzly bear family are both tragedies," said Steve Frye, the chief ranger at Glacier. "However, the evidence from DNA testing and additional investigation information confirmed that the three bears had all consumed human flesh."
The 2-year-old male reportedly circled around some hikers on Wednesday and charged them in a bluff, park officials said. Usually, grizzly bears avoid groups of people.
Evidence indicated the bear family killed and consumed Craig Dahl, 26, a Glacier Park Inc. employee from Winter Park, Colo.
Dahl's scavenged remains were found May 20, three days after he went hiking alone.
Frye said the bear killed Thursday was surprisingly aggressive, given its size and age.
A ranger with binoculars spotted the bear on the upper slopes of Sinopah Mountain at about 6 p.m. Thursday. A group of rangers hiked closer and confirmed the bear's identity by its ear tag and a notch at the tip of an ear.