Self-Delivered Fast Food

We have noted several instances of this in the past months. Bears have discovered a new, self-delivered fast food sensation: mountain bikers. This time it was in Washington state.

A Port Orchard man who was attacked by a black bear while mountain biking Sunday in a Kitsap County park was in satisfactory condition Monday but remained in intensive care.

The 51-year-old man, whose name has not been released at his family's request, had a brief conversation with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official Monday afternoon, and was adamant that it was a male bear that mauled him, not a mother bear with two cubs that had also been seen in the area Sunday.

"He said, 'It was on top of me and I'm positive it was a male bear,' " said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Sgt. Ted Jackson, who visited the man at the hospital for about 15 minutes. Fish and Wildlife officers were still hunting the bear with a team of dogs Monday, with plans to kill it.

The man suffered injuries to his face, shoulder and arm, Jackson said.

"From my understanding, it was his left shoulder that was heavily damaged," he said. "He's in a lot of pain and heavily medicated. You can tell he's still probably in a little bit of shock."

The man was biking, with his two dogs, in Banner Forest Heritage Park near Olalla around noon when he encountered the bear, said Ron Powers, a battalion chief for South Kitsap Fire and Rescue. The dogs were in front of him on the trail when he heard them barking. He came around a blind corner and was face to face with the bear, Powers said.

The bear charged, and the man picked up his bike to protect himself. But the bear reached through the bike and ripped at the man's arm, face, back, neck and ear before backing off, Powers said.

Authorities are trying to catch - and kill - the bear. (Once they have attacked a human, that is pretty standard.) Authorities are not sure why the bear attacked or if anything provoked the bear, but one of the man's two dogs has not been seen since the attack. The dogs, incidentally, should not have been running loose - the park rules require that dogs be leashed.