Sept. 18 (UPI) — Two grizzly bears in Wyoming were euthanized after they allegedly mauled a hunting guide to death, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced on Sunday.
The WGFD said the grizzlies — a mother and a cub — mauled hunting guide Mark Uptain on Friday in the state’s Terrace Mountain area. Uptain was with a client, Corey Chubon, of Florida, who was injured but able to escape the grizzly encounter.
Chubon, who was airlifted out of the area with chest and arm injuries, told authorities he wasn’t able to fire a handgun he had in his possession but tossed it to Uptain before he escaped, the Jackson Hole Daily reported.
Officials said the two men were attacked while they were field dressing an elk they shot the day before but weren’t able to locate until Friday.
The WGFD then set traps for the bears near the elk carcass and were able to kill them on Sunday.
“We killed two grizzly bears up there a little bit ago, and we have every reason to believe they are the offending bears,” said WGFD Jackson Regional Supervisor Brad Hovinga. “They fit the description.”
Uptain’s death came less than two weeks after a federal judge put a temporary block on the opening of grizzly hunting season in Wyoming and Idaho, which had been scheduled to begin just days before this attack.
Uptain was a married father of five.
“He was doing one of the activities he had extreme passion for,” a friend wrote on a GoFundMe page created for Uptain’s family. “An experienced hunting guide in the backcountry of Wyoming.”
