{"id":850809,"date":"2026-09-17T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850809\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:30:09","slug":"bear-encounter-leaves-man-child-injured-outside-bellingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850809\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear encounter leaves man, child injured outside Bellingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BELLINGHAM, Wash. \u2014 A man and a child were injured during an encounter with a black bear on residential property outside Bellingham, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>The encounter happened Monday morning and was reported to WDFW officers around 11:30 a.m. The man and child were treated at a local hospital, officials said. Details about their injuries were not released.<\/p>\n<p>Officers are attempting to trap the bear. WDFW Police said it will increase patrols and continue monitoring the area.<\/p>\n<p>Wildlife officials said bears generally avoid people but are naturally curious. If a bear approaches, people should identify themselves as human by standing, waving their hands above their heads and speaking in a low voice. WDFW advises people to back away without making direct eye contact and not to run.<\/p>\n<p>Officials also recommend making noise, keeping pets leashed, and carrying bear spray that is readily accessible while hiking.<\/p>\n<p>Black bears can be especially attracted to human food sources during the fall as they prepare for winter.<\/p>\n<p>WDFW advises residents to secure garbage cans, pet and livestock food, bird feeders, fruit from orchards, and barbecue grills to reduce the risk of encounters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BELLINGHAM, Wash. \u2014 A man and a child were injured during an encounter with a black bear on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-850809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}