Crewman is mauled and badly injured by grizzly attack in remote B.C. forest

A man working in the forest on British Columbia’s central coast was mauled by a grizzly Wednesday. (Photo: eflon/Flickr)

DRAINEY INLET, B.C. — A man working in the forest on British Columbia’s central coast was mauled by a grizzly Wednesday.

Sgt. Scott Norris with the B.C. Conservation Officer Service says other crew members quickly came to the man’s defence, but his injuries are significant.

Norris says the man was part of a crew working in steep forest terrain near Drainey Inlet, about 400 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

Officers with the service’s specialized predator attack team were flown into the area on Thursday to assess any public-safety risk and to try to determine what happened.

Norris says they don’t know yet what set off the attack.

The victim’s condition hasn’t been updated, but Norris says he was transferred to a larger hospital on the coast.

Norris says March and April is the usual period for bears to emerge from their dens after a winter of hibernation.

“Bears don’t typically look at humans as prey items,” he said. “They emerge hungry, obviously, any bear does … but you don’t want to jump to the conclusion that the bear’s hungry and it attacked an individual.”