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Maggie Bassett and Shonna Dehl were camping on Sunday, July 5, in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming when a black bear attacked their tent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“It wanted in the tents,” Dehl told KTVQ News<\/em>. “That’s all it wanted. It didn’t matter what we did.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bassett and Dehl yelled, screamed, and even fired gunshots at the overly curious bruin. But apparently that wasn\u2019t enough to scare it off. “It didn’t even blink,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cIt just kind of circled around and came back at me from a different angle.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After firing a few more gunshots, the bear eventually ran off, allowing the two women time to flee to their vehicle. They remained there, honking at the bear for a few more hours before driving away to Dehl\u2019s nearby family cabin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “I will never forget that sound of my tent being ripped open,” Bassett said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Miraculously, both women made it out unharmed from this close encounter with what appears to be a food-conditioned bear. The women followed standard bear-safety protocols\u2014using bear containers and keeping a clean camp.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe took all the precautions to pack up all food and drinks and nothing in our tents, but the bear went straight for us and our tents,\u201d Dehl wrote in a Facebook post. \u201cWe had to abandon camp in the middle of the night but the bear still came back and completely destroyed our tents.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to the National Park Service, “Food-conditioned bears learn to seek humans and their developments for rewards.\u201d It\u2019s likely that this bear received some type of human-associated food reward at this location previously to go in with such little fear. Once a bear loses its natural fear of humans, it\u2019s likely it’ll get into more trouble seeking out unnatural food sources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been notified. They plan to trap and relocate the bear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So this situation means you can follow all the rules, do everything right, and still have a negative bear encounter? Technically, yes. But that\u2019s no reason to not recreate in bear country. Store your food safely, carry bear spray, a pistol, or both, and stay aware of bear sign in the area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n