Bear mauls mountain biker
A 41-year-old man has undergonesurgery after being attacked by a black bear while mountain biking in the Rockiesnear the town of Banff.
The cyclist, a local man whose name was not released, was on the Hoodoos-Bow River Trail just east of the town when he was attacked around 8:30 p.m. MDT on Friday.
Two other cyclists called for help after finding him bleeding from tear wounds to his chest and right shoulder.
Ian Syme, the chief warden of Banff National Park, said the bear â which wasyoung and extremely thin â was behavingvery unusually.
Confrontations between bears and humans are usually brief and the bear normally leaves the area after an attack, he said.
Instead, Syme said that when another warden and RCMP officers arrived at the scene, they could see a black bear near the man.
The bear was shot when it refused to move away.
A Parks Canada spokeswoman, Marjorie Huculak, saidthe bear is believed to be the animal that attacked, although it hasn't yetbeen confirmed.
The man who was mauled was taken to a hospital in Calgary, where he was listed in stable condition.
Bears attacked people close to the same area during two separate incidents in August 2005.
A grizzly that was with its cub attacked a Calgary man on the Bryant Creek Trail.
Four days earlier,a woman was mauled in the head by a grizzly near Lake Minnewanka after unknowingly getting between the animal and its two cubs.
The last fatal attack in Alberta was in June 2005, when a woman was killed near Canmore by amale grizzly.