Bear killed after attack near Bridgeport

Campers were stunned two weeks ago when a black bear with two cubs in tow lunged at a man standing near a cabin outside the Mono County town of Bridgeport. The bear mauled the victim’s face, then passed within inches of three witnesses sitting beside a fire pit. The man survived, but the bear’s days were numbered.

The next day, it returned to the site and was shot by state and federal wildlife officials. A necropsy revealed human-prepared food in its stomach. It was the state’s second bear attack this year.

Doug Updike of the state Department of Fish and Game said the most recent attack should serve as a reminder that bears are extremely dangerous and that with 30,000 of them in the state, encounters are likely to occur.

-- J. Michael Kennedy