COOKE CITY, Mont. -- At least one bear rampaged through a heavily occupied campground in the early morning hours Wednesday near Yellowstone National Park, killing one person and injuring two others during a terrifying attack that forced people to hide in their cars as an animal tore through tents.
Three separate attacks left a male dead and a woman and another male injured at the Soda Butte campground, authorities said. The woman suffered severe lacerations and crushed bones from bites on her arms, and the surviving male was bitten on his calf.
Wildlife officials did not release the names or ages of the victims.
Don and Paige Wilhelm, of Aledo, Texas, were spending the night in the campsite next to the woman.
"We heard a scream about 2 (a.m.)," Don Wilhelm said. "We weren't sure what it was. We thought maybe teenagers yelling."
Paige Wilhelm added: "We heard a lady in the tent next door say, 'No.' I said, 'Don, there's a bear,' and started hearing this snuffling. We heard her say, 'A bear has attacked me.' "
The couple waited until they could no longer hear the animal breathing before running for their car. Don Wilhelm later helped bandage the woman's wounds.
Both survivors were hospitalized in Cody, Wyo.
The victims were in three separate tents, said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Warden Capt. Sam Sheppard.
Two of the tents were near each other. The male who was killed was alone in a tent about a quarter-mile away in the heavily occupied campground that has 27 sites for tents and recreational vehicles, he said.
Campers throughout the site had their food in storage boxes, Sheppard said.
"They were doing things right," he said. "It was random. I have no idea why this bear picked these three tents out of all the tents there."
Wildlife officials were inspecting the campground to determine what happened.
"We don't know if it was one bear, two bears, a black bear or grizzly bear," said Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim.
"Obviously, the bear's gone now. Will it come back tonight? That's the question."
Authorities set five baited traps and were collecting bear hair, saliva and droppings while measuring the bite wounds of victims to determine the type and number of bears involved.
If they trap an involved bear, it will be killed, Sheppard said.
Park County dispatchers took a 911 call early Wednesday from a male reporting that a bear had bitten his ankle and was tearing up tents, Aasheim said.
Dispatchers got two more calls, including one from a man who said a bear bit the leg of his daughter's boyfriend.
At 3:50 a.m., park officials went through the campground to advise campers to get into their cars.
A half-hour later, the dead male was discovered at a campsite. Authorities evacuated the campground, sending campers to nearby hotels.
It was not immediately clear how many people were in the campground at the time.
The same campground was the site of a 2008 attack in which a grizzly bear bit and injured a man sleeping in a tent. A young adult female grizzly was captured in a trap four days later and transported to a bear research center at Washington State University in Pullman.
The 10-acre Soda Butte campground is in Gallatin National Forest, about five miles from the northeastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park about 125 miles southwest of Billings.
"It is a populated area for bears, not just grizzly bears but black bears," said Gallatin National Forest spokeswoman Marna Daley.
The campground, which is run by the U.S. Forest Service, has been closed, as have two other nearby campgrounds, Daley said. Forest Service officials will consider closing more campgrounds after consulting with state wildlife officials leading the investigation, she said.
Garland resident Floyd Fuller said he has probably been to Yellowstone 30 times over the years. News of Wednesday's bear attack won't change his plans to visit again in the future.
Yellowstone is an easy drive from Utah, and wildlife is one of the attractions for Fuller.
"I just like the beauty of it. It's cooler up there, there's a lot of good scenery, the wildlife, all the hot pots, Old Faithful. We usually stop and watch that every time we go through there," he said. "I'll still go."
Visitors to Yellowstone are warned to keep their distance from wild animals.
"It's their territory," Fuller said.
"If you start crowding a wild animal, he's going to let you know it, so you've got to respect their territory and let them have their space."
Standard-Examiner reporter Roy Burton contributed to this article.
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