Photographer recounts encounter with dying grizzly

[Editor’s Note: The photograph of the dying grizzly accompanying this story may be considered graphic by some readers.]

By SCOTT SHINDLEDECKER

Daily Inter Lake

Kalispell resident Aaron Benson has spent hundreds of days in Glacier National Park since moving to the region 15 years ago, but the night of Saturday, July 14, was like none he had experienced.

Benson, 22, became interested in photography when he was 14 and his hobby has become a passion that he shares with friends and family. His desire to star gaze and capture the awe-inspiring scenes of Glacier with his camera led him into the park that night.

“Sometimes, I just watch the stars, photograph them and camp out in my car until the sun rises,” Benson said in an interview with the Inter Lake. “It’s a nice time to be there, it’s comfortable, sometimes a little chilly, but incredible. I’m probably in there 30 times a year.”

Benson was driving east on Going-to-the-Sun Road on his way to Logan Pass when he saw the red and blue lights of a Park Service vehicle flashing ahead in the distance. He then came across another vehicle stopped on the road with its emergency lights on.

“I could see something on the road in its headlights, but I wasn’t sure what it was,” he recalled. “I pulled alongside the vehicle and realized it was a grizzly sitting there. They asked me to call 911, but I said the service wasn’t too good and that someone from the Park Service was coming.”

According to information from the park, rangers had found the partially paralyzed female grizzly on the road near Rim Rock, about 1 mile west of Logan Pass. Rangers initially thought the bear had been hit by a car, but evidence at the scene showed that the bear had slipped off a cliff, fell 20 feet and landed on its back in the road.

Benson recorded some video of the scene and drove past.

“It was honestly, very, very sad,” Benson said. “The bear was sitting there, breathing heavily and you could tell it was in a lot of pain. No one was really sure what had happened, but we thought it had been a hit-and-run.”

After driving past, Benson quickly reconsidered, turned around and went back to the heart-rending scene.

“You just don’t see this,” he recalled. “Internally, you are crying for the bear and it was the closest I’ve ever been to a bear. Your human intuition is to go help. But then you realize that’s not going to happen,” Benson said.

He said he experienced a mixture of emotions at the scene.

“As hikers, we can get anxious thinking about encountering one on the trail, but at the same time, it’s their land. They are just so big, but it was in such a vulnerable state,” Benson said. “I’ve been really blessed to not encounter one on any of the trails and have seen them from afar, but you just never imagine seeing one like that.

“My adrenaline was pumping and I felt a little shaky,” Benson added.

He said after he had turned around and went back to the scene, a Park Service vehicle was there and a ranger told everyone to back away.

“It wasn’t long before we heard the first shot, then another,” Benson said.

In an email, park Public Affairs Officer Lauren Alley said that “in the case of this grizzly, rangers used a shotgun [to euthanize the bear] after consulting directly with our wildlife biologist. That is what they had on hand. They consulted the wildlife biologist with a description of symptoms because grizzly bears are a listed species under the Endangered Species Act.”

Glacier National Park bear biologist John Waller, who has been at his post for the last 16 years, said a bear dying on Sun Road is definitely rare, but not unheard of.

“There was one male grizzly that slid off a snow field about a mile above The Loop in 2014, fell right on its head and died instantly,” Waller said. “There was also a case several years ago where a mountain lion had attacked a bighorn sheep and both fell to their deaths on the road.”

Waller said that happened at Dead Horse Curve on the east side of the park.

He said where the female grizzly fell last weekend was a weird spot for the accident to happen.

“It is heavily vegetated, I’m not sure what it was doing,” Waller said.

The National Park Service conducted a necropsy on the bear the next day, July 15, and found significant trauma to its thoracic vertebrae, broken ribs and a dislocated hip. The non-lactating female bear was estimated to be 5 to 7 years old and appeared to be in otherwise good health.

Park officials notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as required since the grizzly bear is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and informed Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks of the incident. There are an estimated 300 grizzly bears in Glacier National Park.

For Benson, the unpredictability and wildness of Glacier is what keeps bringing him back to the park.

“I’ve done a lot of hiking there and [encountering the grizzly] is the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen,” Benson said. “It was sad and unfortunate to see, but it’s part of what keeps me coming back. You never know what you are going to see. It’s wild, crazy, peaceful, many things, but the adventures you can experience can be remarkable.”

Reporter Scott Shindledecker can be reached at (406) 758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com.