Missing hiker found dead of suspected bear attack in iconic national park

A missing hiker from Florida was found dead on Wednesday in Glacier National Park and park officials are investigating the death as a possible bear attack.

According to the Montana Free Press, 33-year-old Anthony Pollio was reported missing Monday after he didn’t return from a May 3 hike on the west side Glacier Park.

The last known contact with Pollio came at about 8:20 p.m. on May 3, Park officials said.

Someone had reported seeing Pollio, who was from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hiking toward Mt. Brown Fire Lookout and his car was later located at Lake McDonald Lodge.

Then on Wednesday, his remains were found at about noon in a heavily wooded area some 50 feet off the Mt. Brown Trail.

In a news release, park officials said the man’s injuries were “consistent with those sustained by a bear encounter.”

As a result of the investigation, trails on the east side of Lake McDonald – including those to the Mt. Brown Lookout, Snyder Lake Campground, Sperry Chalet, and Lincoln Lake Campground – have been closed as rangers assess the area for possible bear activity.

In the past, park officials have euthanized bears identified as those involved in attacks humans.

Some 1,000 bears live in Glacier National Park, including black bears and grizzlies, but reported fatal bear attacks have remained rare.

If the fatality is confirmed to have been a bear attack, it would be the first fatal bear encounter in Glacier since May 1998, when a man was killed while hiking the Scenic Point Trail in the Two Medicine Valley.

Since 1967, there have been 10 fatal bear attacks in Glacier National Park.

The most infamous was in August 1967, when two different bears killed two different women on the same night, miles apart from each other.