Similarly, in near Golden, Colorado on June 21, a black bear scratched a woman\u2019s leg, and then followed the woman<\/a>\u00a0for about 30 minutes, despite her shouting and throwing rocks and sticks.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just seems to be that left, right and center, things are going on,\u201d said Kim Titchener, president of Bear Safety and More, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n However, she noted that \u201c20 or 30 years ago, we didn\u2019t have phones with cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n Now sketchy bear encounters are frequently caught on video, such as the woman\u2019s run-in with the grizzly in Alberta, Titchener said.<\/p>\n And the videos blow up on social media, which can create an out-sized perception of problems with bears\u00a0compared to the past, she added.<\/p>\n Despite recent rainstorms, including in Alberta\u00a0where Titchener lives, it\u2019s been a dry year overall in many places.<\/p>\n That\u2019s led to questions over how bears\u2019 natural food sources are being affected. And how that, in turn, might drive more conflicts, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAre there going to be berries (this year)?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Regarding the grizzly moving in on the woman and her dog in Alberta, the consensus seems to be that the bear showed great interest in the dog, Titchener said.<\/p>\n In a video the woman took of the encounter, she repeatedly and sternly shouts at the bear, which gets just a few feet a way a couple times\u00a0but never attacks the dog.<\/p>\n \u201cIt (the bear) was absolutely a threat to her and the dog,\u201d Titchener said.<\/p>\n Some have questioned why the woman didn\u2019t carry bear spray.<\/p>\n Spray is highly recommended in bear country, and Titchener said that two her knowledge, the woman has experience living and working around bears.<\/p>\n Apparently that day, \u201cshe was just taking her dog for a quick walk\u201d and didn\u2019t think to take her bear spray, Titchener said.<\/p>\n The incident highlights the need to never take for granted when a bear might appear, and being prepared with a defense mechanism, she said.<\/p>\n Ruckus In Grand Teton<\/p>\n Grant Teton National Park spokeswoman Emily Davis said the uptick in human-bear conflicts in Grand Teton seems to be about a month ahead of schedule this year.<\/p>\n A 3-year-old female black bear was killed by wildlife agents on June 15 because it had been getting human-sourced \u201cfood rewards\u201d in the Jenny Lake area, Davis said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure that anyone was necessarily feeding it\u201d directly, Davis said.<\/p>\n Instead, the bear might have gotten food from unattended backpacks, coolers and the like, Davis said.<\/p>\n The black bear \u201cwas approaching people too closely,\u201d so the decision was made to euthanize it, she said.<\/p>\n Heather Reich, a biologist and bear conflict management expert, told Cowboy State Daily that bear activity and conflicts are up across the West, probably because of an abnormally warm winter.<\/p>\n She and her husband, Derek, have three Karelian bear dogs<\/a>, a breed originally from Finland that specializes in harassing and chasing bears away.<\/p>\n In 2023, the Reichs founded Bear-ier Solutions, based in Nevada.<\/p>\n They were recently called to Grand Teton to drive a young grizzly named Miracle away from the crowded Colter Bay area.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dogs gave it a good chase, and I think that was a very novel experience for that little kid (Miracle), Heather said.<\/p>\n However, that still wasn\u2019t enough to convince Miracle to leave the area for good.<\/p>\n Miracle was captured by wildlife agents<\/a>\u00a0Thursday and relocated to a remote site in the park, the first such relocation in Grand Teton since 2021.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Educating People Prevents Trouble<\/p>\n From the Wyoming Game and Fish Department\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s essentially been a normal year, large carnivore specialist Dan Thompson told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like things have been steadily busy with bears and conflicts, but nothing necessarily out of the ordinary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some higher-profile situations in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks that garner a great deal of media attention but aren’t emblematic of conflict potential everywhere,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n Game and Fish works to prevent conflict through education, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current dry state of the state is not lost on us, and what it may mean as the summer progresses for conflict potential between bears \u2013 black and grizzly \u2013 and people, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we are prepared to deal with conflicts as necessary and continue our outreach and education across the state to inform the public on ways to reduce the potential for conflict with bears and other wildlife,\u201d Thompson added.<\/p>\n Attacks In Wyoming, Montana, Canada<\/p>\n Nobody has been mauled in Grand Teton this year. In May, there were grizzly attacks in Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park in Montana. \u00a0<\/p>\n Glacier reported its first fatal bear attack<\/a>\u00a0since 1998 when the body of Florida resident Anthony Pollio, 33, was found May 6 two days after he was reported missing.<\/p>\n His body was found about 50 feet from the trail he\u2019d apparently been hiking.<\/p>\n On the same day Pollio went missing, two brothers were severely hurt<\/a>\u00a0when they were attacked by a female grizzly with cubs near Old Faithful in Yellowstone.<\/p>\n![\"Dog](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Bears-and-dogs-working-6.29.26.jpeg\")
Dog handler Heather Reich (left), federal wildlife biologist Kat Wilmot and Karelian bear dogs Lumi, Kondii and Gimbal search for a young grizzly called Miracle in Grand Teton National Park. (Heather and Derek Reich, Bear-ier Solutions)\u2018Are There Going To Be Berries?\u2019<\/p>\n