Wyoming authorities search for grizzly bear that mauled man

A grizzly bear that killed a 70-year-old man near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming was still on the loose Friday, authorities said.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office said authorities had closed part of the Shoshone National Forest while they searched for the bear, which apparently attacked a man after being captured and tranquilized there by researchers Thursday.

The man, Erwin Frank Evert, was unarmed and fatally wounded when the large adult male grizzly bear attacked him, the sheriff’s office said. He was in the forest with his wife, a member of a federal team of researchers studying grizzly bears, authorities said.

Members of the team had packed up their equipment and left the area after tranquilizing the bear and putting a radio collar on it, the sheriff’s office said. But officials said Evert was attacked when he wandered back into the capture area, located in the Kitty Creek Drainage.

Game wardens and federal authorities began searching for the bear using an electronic tracking device Friday.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents will determine the fate of the bear after locating it, the sheriff’s office said.

The 2.4-million-acre Shoshone National Forest is just east of Yellowstone National Park.