A grizzly bear that was scared off by a woman camping in Montana returned to the campsite later that same night to kill her.
While the incident happened in July of last year, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) recently released its review of the bear attack.
Leah Davis Lokan, from Chico, California, was on a multi-day bicycle trip through Montana when she decided to stop in the town of Ovando for a night.
Lokan had decided to camp behind a museum next to Joe and Kim Cole, acquaintances she had met during her bicycle trip.
In the early hours of July 6, 2021, at approximately 3:08 a.m., the Coles were awoken by Lokan crying out, “Bear, bear!” and found a bear several feet away, exploring the area. The three campers began making noise, which successfully resulted in the bear leaving the campsite.
Lokan told the Coles, “The bear huffed at my head.”
After that, Lokan moved food she had from her tent into a nearby building known as the old jail at the museum. The Coles said they asked Lokan if she wanted to stay in a hotel instead, but she declined.
About an hour later Joe Cole awoke again, this time because of a noise that made him realize “Lokan was being attacked by a bear,” although she had not yelled out, the IGBC reported.
Joe then crawled out of his tent, began screaming “Bear, bear” in a roaring-like voice, and deployed his bear spray against the animal. Meanwhile, Kim began blowing a whistle.
The couple then saw the bear “pouncing up and down” on the 65-year-old woman and her tent. Joe approached, and continued to use the spray. He said the bear made eye contact with him before leaving.
After that, the Coles realized that Lokan and her tent had been dragged about 8 to 10 feet by the bear, and Lokan’s lifeless body was half out of the tent, still in her sleeping bag.
Joe and Kim Cole then ran to a nearby store — which also houses the Ovando Inn — to wake guests up for help. Emergency responders arrived on the scene, where they performed first aid and CPR on Lokan, but without success.
An autopsy report found Lokan had died instantly, and that her death was caused by “multiple blunt force injuries of the head, torso, and right upper extremity; the neck had been broken and spinal cord severed as well as blood vessels,” the IGBC said.
The IGBC also reported that after killing Lokan, the bear broke into a chicken coop two blocks away from the campsite (at around 5:00 am), and ate multiple chickens and their feed.
Wildlife service officials tracked the brown bear for days, before eventually finding the animal trying to break into another chicken coop on July 9. The bear was then shot dead.
DNA evidence collected thereafter confirmed it was the same bear that had killed Lokan.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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