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Mama grizzly bear chases hunter up a tree in Montana, later killed by wildlife officials
A grizzly bear was shot and later killed after chasing a hunter up a tree in Montana, authorities said.
The animal, a mother bear with two cubs, charged the unidentified man while he was hunting by the Hidden Lakes in Gallatin County, Montana, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. He shot the bear with a pistol before climbing a tree, but the wounded bear remained in the area.
County dispatchers received a 911 call from the hunter at 2:08 p.m. on Saturday. The man waited in the tree until a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks helicopter arrived on the scene.
When the Fish, Wildlife and Parks personnel arrived, they “dispatched the wounded grizzly,” the sheriff’s office said, and rescued the hunter. He was not injured, and was transported out of the area on the helicopter. The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office assembled a search and rescue team, but it was not needed to find the man.
Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office
The Hidden Lakes are a series of eight lakes on the west side of the Gallatin Range, a part of the Rocky Mountains. The area is home to grizzly bears and wolves. Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said that the incident should serve as a reminder for hunters to be aware of their surroundings, to carry bear spray, avoid signs of bears, and hunt in groups and carry a communication device to call for help if necessary.
Grizzly bears are considered a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fewer than 2,000 verified grizzly bears in the continental United States, with most living in “recovery zones” that have been established to help the population recover. Another 30,000 grizzly bears are estimated to live in Alaska, with 3,000 living in Katmai National Park, the home of “Fat Bear Week.”
Multiple bear attacks have been reported in Montana in recent months. In late September, a man was attacked by a bear and injured, then walked over a mile to reach a rescue helicopter. In mid-August, a three-year-old girl was attacked by a black bear while she was in a tent at a private campground just north of Yellowstone National Park. A bear believed to be involved was captured and euthanized hours after the incident.
In July, a man shot and killed a grizzly bear after it charged him while he was picking berries. Another grizzly bear was killed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials that same day after it broke into a home.
The House Ethics Committee, which has been conducting an investigation into sexual misconduct and obstruction allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, scheduled a vote for Friday on whether to release its report, according to three sources with knowledge of the committee’s work.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Gaetz to be attorney general, Gaetz resigned his congressional seat, effective immediately.
“I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress, to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” Gaetz said in his resignation letter obtained by CBS News
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that there was about an eight-week period during which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his seat by setting the date for a special election.
Now that Gaetz has resigned, it is unclear whether the panel will vote on releasing the report, since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
There is precedent in Congress on the Senate side for an ethics committee report to become public after a member resigns from Congress, however. In 2011, this happened when Sen. John Ensign of Nevada resigned amid allegations that he tried to hide an extramarital affair.
But it’s not clear that that would apply to the House, leaving open the possibility that the report on Gaetz would not be released.
In June, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it was investigating a range of allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery.
Multiple sources at the time told CBS News that four women had informed the House Ethics Committee that they had been paid to go to parties that included sex and drugs, and that Gaetz had also attended. The committee has Gaetz’s Venmo transactions that allegedly show payments for the women.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has called the committee’s investigation a “frivolous” smear campaign.
Some of the allegations of sexual misconduct under review by the committee were also the subject of a previous Department of Justice probe into Gaetz. Federal investigators sought to determine if Gaetz violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws, but no charges were filed.
The House Ethics Committee resumed its investigation into Gaetz in 2023, following the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against him.
Gaetz has long blamed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, also a Republican, for the probe. And Gaetz later led the movement to sack McCarthy as speaker.
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