BEAR CREEK TWP. -- The mother bear involved in an attack on a hunter in Emmet County has the season on her side. Michigan wildlife officials have given up the search for the black bear, assuming she is now in hibernation.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment set up cameras and traps to catch the mother bear involved in the attack on Chad Fortune. The DNRE planned to euthanize the animal after she started mauling the bow hunter while he was sitting in a tree stand.
Fortune was in the tree stand when a female black bear and her three cubs started climbing the tree and biting him.
Fortune said at first two cubs climbed up the treestand ladder, and when he shouted at them, they dropped to the ground. A third bear then climbed up the tree, and the hunter punched and elbowed it until it fell from the tree. Then a bear climbed up the treestand ladder and bit Fortune on the leg.
Fortune remained in the treestand for two hours until his fiancee and father came looking for him, worried that he had not returned from hunting after nightfall. After helping him down from the treestand, they took Fortune to the hospital for treatment.
He was treated at the hospital for bites to his left calf, thigh and shoulder
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said the bear is dangerous because she lost her fear of humans. After the winter season the DNRE will reassess the issue.
"If we get complaints from homeowners in that area in the spring we will search again," explained Mary Detloff with the DNRE. "It just depends on the bear's behavior in the spring."
