COOKE CITY, Mont. — Wildlife officials on Thursday were testing the DNA of a captured grizzly bear to determine whether it was the animal that killed a Michigan man and injured two other campers in a rampage near Yellowstone National Park.
The sow, estimated to weigh 300 to 400 pounds, was lured into a trap fashioned from culvert pipe partially covered by pieces of the dead man’s tent. She was left in place overnight Wednesday to attract her young, and by Thursday morning two of her year-old offspring were inside adjacent traps.
The third could be heard nearby through much of the day, calling out to its mother.
Montana wildlife officials identified the man killed in the early Wednesday mauling as Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich. The bear pulled Kammer out his tent at the Soda Butte Campground and dragged him 25 feet to where his body was found, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said.
The other victims, Deb Freele of London, Ontario,and an unidentified male, were hospitalized in Cody, Wyo. The male was treated and released, and Freele was scheduled to have surgery today for bite wounds and a broken bone in her arm, said West Park Hospital spokesman Joel Hunt.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 07/30/2010