A man in the eastern Sierra town of Mammoth Lakes fended off a bear with a hatchet after the bruin attacked him, a woman and the couple\u2019s two dogs Monday morning, authorities say.<\/p>\n
The 70-pound bear, according to local and state officials, was wandering near the couple\u2019s home in the town\u2019s Old Mammoth area when the family dogs got into a skirmish with the bear. The woman attempted to separate the animals but became entangled in the fight, with the bear clawing and biting her, officials said.<\/p>\n
The man reportedly fetched a hatchet, and with the woman, used the short-handle ax and a water bottle to subdue the bear so that the animal \u201cwas unable to stand,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n
The couple sustained \u201csignificant\u201d injuries, according to the Mammoth Lakes Police Department, but they were able to drive to Mammoth Hospital. The dogs sustained \u201cminor\u201d injuries and were expected to recover, police said.<\/p>\n
Officers and biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife responded to the attack, finding the bear severely injured. Deeming it \u201ca public safety concern,\u201d agency officials\u00a0euthanized the animal. It was estimated to be 17 months old.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis type of aggressive behavior is highly unusual,\u201d Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Dan\u00a0Casabian said in a statement. \u201cWe are grateful that the victims are expected to make full recoveries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bear attacks in California are rare. The state is home exclusively to black bears, which are smaller and not as combative as grizzlies.<\/p>\n
The only known time a bear killed a person in California was two years ago, when a woman was reportedly mauled at her home in the Sierra County community of\u00a0Downieville,\u00a0 according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s bear population has grown in recent decades. So have human encounters with bears as the animals seek new places to roam, often where towns and neighborhoods have expanded into previously wild areas. Bears taking food from campgrounds, cars and even homes is not uncommon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man in the eastern Sierra town of Mammoth Lakes fended off a bear with a hatchet after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,20,643],"class_list":["post-352310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-climate","tag-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}