A hiker in Montana who was reported missing earlier this week was found dead Friday after what authorities call “an encounter” with a grizzly bear.
40-year-old Craig Clouatre was hiking with a friend near Six Mile Creek — roughly 20 miles north of Yellowstone National Park — when the pair split up, Sheriff Brad Bichler of the Park County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I am writing this update. After an extensive search this morning, we have located Craig,” Sheriff Bichler said in a Facebook post. “It appears he had an encounter with a grizzly and unfortunately did not survive,”
Clouatre and his friend were supposed to meet up again Wednesday night, but Clouatrae never showed.
Authorities found Clouatre’s body on Friday after searching the area with thermal imaging all day Thursday, according to the Facebook post.
Bear attacks are rare — you are much more likely to be killed by a bee than a grizzly bear — but they are on the rise.
Grizzly bears killed just 24 people between 2000 and 2015, according to nature.com. But there were five fatal attacks in 2021.
Outdoor recreation exploded during the pandemic, which increased interactions between bears and humans.
Frank Van Manen, Supervisory Research Wildlife Biologist for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, believes the increased attacks aren’t a cause for concern.
“It is important to recognize that in the vast majority of bear encounters, bears avoid any form of confrontation and leave without incident, which of course does not make the news,” Mr. Van Manen told Backpacker last year. “Physical attacks are extremely rare events that tend to be unpredictable and vary widely over time and geography. It is too early to tell whether this year will be unique in that regard or not.”
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