A bear is believed to have attacked and killed a 33-year-old hiker who had gone missing in the Glacier National Park in Montana since Sunday, officials say.
Search and rescue crews spotted the hiker’s remains in a densely wooded area, with injuries “consistent with those sustained by a bear encounter”.
Officials identified the hiker as Anthony Pollio from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The National Park Service has closed the part of the trail where the body was found.
Fatal bear attacks are rare in the US, but experts say the animals grow bolder and lose their fear of humans when homes and campgrounds become easy food sources.
Getty ImagesGlacier National Park has been referred to as “bear country” due to its dense population of grizzly bears (known as brown bears). Black bears are also common in the area.
The park service said on Thursday that the last bear-related human injury there occurred in August 2025, while the last fatal attack was recorded in 1998 in the Two Medicine Valley.
From 1900 to 2009, just 63 people died from a black bear attack in North America, according to a study in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
In a separate incident, two hikers were injured in a bear attack on Monday at Yellowstone National Park, which is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extends to Montana and Idaho.
