BILLINGS, Mont. (KRON/AP) – A 63-year-old Montana man has been identified as the victim in a fatal bear attack in Yellowstone National Park as officials await results of DNA testing to determine if a female grizzly captured nearby was responsible.
Park Superintendent Dan Wenk said Monday that Lance Crosby of Billings was killed after encountering the bear last week while hiking alone off-trail without bear spray. His body was found Friday. Officials say the victim had defensive wounds on his forearms.
In a statement, the National Park Service described the man as an “experienced hiker” who had lived and worked in the park for five seasons. A park ranger found him “partially consumed” a half-mile from the Elephant Back Loop Trail, the statement said.
Crosby is the sixth person killed by grizzlies since 2010 in the greater Yellowstone area, which includes the park and surrounding areas of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
Park biologists set a trap Friday that caught a female bear but not the cub that’s believed to have been with her. If testing confirms the sow was involved in Crosby’s death, Wenk says it will be killed.