Maggie Bassett and Shonna Dehl were camping on Sunday, July 5, in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming when a black bear attacked their tent.
“It wanted in the tents,” Dehl told KTVQ News. “That’s all it wanted. It didn’t matter what we did.”
Bassett and Dehl yelled, screamed, and even fired gunshots at the overly curious bruin. But apparently that wasn’t enough to scare it off. “It didn’t even blink,” Bassett said. “It just kind of circled around and came back at me from a different angle.”
After firing a few more gunshots, the bear eventually ran off, allowing the two women time to flee to their vehicle. They remained there, honking at the bear for a few more hours before driving away to Dehl’s nearby family cabin.
“I will never forget that sound of my tent being ripped open,” Bassett said.
Miraculously, both women made it out unharmed from this close encounter with what appears to be a food-conditioned bear. The women followed standard bear-safety protocols—using bear containers and keeping a clean camp.
“We took all the precautions to pack up all food and drinks and nothing in our tents, but the bear went straight for us and our tents,” Dehl wrote in a Facebook post. “We had to abandon camp in the middle of the night but the bear still came back and completely destroyed our tents.”
According to the National Park Service, “Food-conditioned bears learn to seek humans and their developments for rewards.” It’s likely that this bear received some type of human-associated food reward at this location previously to go in with such little fear. Once a bear loses its natural fear of humans, it’s likely it’ll get into more trouble seeking out unnatural food sources.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been notified. They plan to trap and relocate the bear.
So this situation means you can follow all the rules, do everything right, and still have a negative bear encounter? Technically, yes. But that’s no reason to not recreate in bear country. Store your food safely, carry bear spray, a pistol, or both, and stay aware of bear sign in the area.
Feature image of destroyed tents via Shonna Dehl’s Facebook.
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