Boy Killed By Black Bear In Utah

Wildlife officers shot and wounded a bear Monday, just hours after an 11-year-old boy on a family camping trip was snatched from his tent and killed, a rare fatal attack in Utah's Wasatch Mountains. But the bear is still on the loose.

With 26 dogs assisting them in the search, authorities were confident that the bear that was shot was the same one that ripped through the tent shortly before midnight Sunday.

"The dogs are on the scent. ... We're hopeful this bear will be taken shortly," Jim Karpowitz, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said at a morning news conference.

The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent in a primitive camping area, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

The boy, sleeping alone in a separate section of a large tent, screamed before he was dragged away in his sleeping bag, said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County Sheriff's Office.

The boy's stepfather heard the scream, and immediately got up and ran out of the tent to try to find out what was going on. But there was no sign of the boy, Harris told CBS station KUTV.

A host from a nearby campground contacted police, who feared the boy had been kidnapped. Deputies blocked off the canyon, checking vehicles.

But they soon found evidence of a bear attack, including the ripped tent and what they believed were bear tracks.

Following the tracks, they found the boy about 400 yards from his tent, in the direction of another campsite where a bear sighting had been reported earlier in the weekend, Harris said.

It was not known what provoked the bear, though a bear can smell food for miles.

"They stick their nose in the air. It's like radar," said Hal Black, a biologist at Brigham Young University in Provo.

Karpowitz said it was the first fatal attack by a black bear in Utah.

"When it's hot and dry like this, bears are short of food," Karpowitz said.

In July 2006, a black bear bit the arm of a 14-year-old Boy Scout while he slept in a tent, also in Utah County. The female bear returned to the campground and was killed. The boy was not seriously injured.

The Utah wildlife agency and the U.S. Forest Service were pursuing the wounded bear with the help of a helicopter. It was described as a male, possibly 300 pounds and "jet black."

American Fork Canyon is a popular camping destination and home to Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Harris said the family was camping about two miles up a dirt road.

"All he wanted to do was come up and have a good time with his family. And then something like this happens," Harris said. "It's probably the most devastating thing that can happen to a family."

"It's shaken everybody up. We're all distraught," said Scott Root, conservation outreach manager at the Utah wildlife agency. "It could put a lot of fear in the public."