{"id":353735,"date":"2026-06-09T22:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353735\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T22:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:29:10","slug":"man-fights-off-bear-with-hatchet-after-attack-in-california-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353735\/","title":{"rendered":"Man fights off bear with hatchet after attack in California mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple sustained significant injuries during a black bear attack in California\u2019s Sierra Nevada mountains, authorities said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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The 17-month-old bear, which also injured the couple\u2019s dogs, was euthanized after the man fought it off with the blunt end of a hatchet, the Mammoth Lakes Police Department said in a news release.<\/p>\n

The attack occurred around 6 a.m. in Mammoth Lakes, near Yosemite National Park, after the woman tried to stop the bear from fighting with one of her dogs outside her home, the department said.<\/p>\n

A second dog ran outside, according to the release, and the bear bit and clawed the woman.<\/p>\n

When the man tried to intervene, the bear \u201caggressively confronted\u201d him as well, though he was able to flee after the woman began hitting the animal with a water bottle, the department said.<\/p>\n

The man went inside and grabbed the hatchet, ending the confrontation, according to the release. <\/p>\n

The couple drove to a local hospital, the department said. Their conditions were not immediately clear. Their dogs sustained minor injuries, according to the release.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement determined that the bear was a threat to public safety and euthanized the animal, the department said.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s chief, Dan Casbian, said in the release that bear attacks are extremely rare in the area. The animals typically avoid humans and will flee when confronted, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple sustained significant injuries during a black bear attack in California\u2019s Sierra Nevada mountains, authorities said Tuesday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-353735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353735","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=353735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}