Autopsy planned for dead Yellowstone hiker

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo.—

Rangers investigated Saturday whether a Michigan man was the victim of a grizzly attack in Yellowstone National Park or if the bear had come upon the hiker's body after he died.

The man was found Friday morning by two hikers on the Mary Mountain Trail, which runs northeast of the park's iconic Old Faithful geyser. Investigators found grizzly bear tracks and scat near the man, but were not immediately sure whether the grizzly caused the man's death or disturbed his body after he died.

"Bears are opportunistic when it comes to food sources," Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said.

"It's very clear that there was a bear around the man's body. What we don't know is whether this was a bear attack, or whether the bear came upon this man's body after he died."

Authorities say the man likely died Wednesday or Thursday. Park officials did not plan to name the hiker -- a man in his 60s from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan -- until Sunday, pending family notification.

His death comes after a female bear attacked and killed a 57-year-old California man on the popular Wapiti Lake Trail, miles away from where the Michigan man was discovered Friday.

The female bear that killed the California man was not killed because officials said the sow was only defending its cubs and had not threatened humans before.

An autopsy is planned for the Michigan man in Montana, outside the park.

An aerial search of the area Saturday turned up no bear activity. Nash said that park rangers and wildlife biologists were combing the area on foot.

"They are reviewing and investigating the scene to see if they can find any clues about what happened," Nash said.

Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said that the hiker was found with a snack bar in his closed backpack, but that it appears the grizzly did not try to get at the food.

Mary Mountain is a 21-mile-long backcountry trail in the central area of the park. It's closed from March to June because park managers list it as "high-density grizzly bear habitat."

Mary Mountain was closed after the man was discovered, along with the Cygnet Lakes Trail and a section of the Hayden Valley west of the Grand Loop Road.

Nash said that the Michigan hiker was staying in the park, but not camping off the Mary Mountain Trail. The man was not carrying bear pepper spray, which is advised for hikers in the area, Nash said.

AP-WF-08-28-11 0450GMT

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Teen hiker is latest to die after Yosemite fall

A teenager died Thursday after suffering head injuries sustained when he fell four days earlier at Yosemite National Park, making him the latest victim in an increasingly deadly year for the park.

Kao Kue, 17, was taken by air ambulance to Doctor's Medical Center in Modesto after falling on the park's popular Mist Trail on Sunday. He died Thursday, the Stanislaus County coroner's department confirmed, though a cause of death was not released. Park officials wouldn't comment on the incident because Kue was a minor.

Though Kue's death won't count toward the number of fatalities at Yosemite this year because he did not die inside the park, the number of fatalities at Yosemite is higher than it normally is at this time of year. Yosemite usually sees five or six deaths by the end of July, park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said. This year, there have been 14, most recently a 26-year-old San Ramon woman who fell while trying to descend Half Dome on July 31.

The number also accounts for incidents that occur in the park, such as heart attacks, car accidents and deaths attributed to natural causes.

Cobb was quick to point out that though the numbers are high for this point in the calendar, it doesn't mean 2011 is the park's deadliest year. Fifteen people died in Yosemite in 2010, and if the remainder of 2011 goes by without incident, Cobb said, the year's total would be lower. Even if another fatality should occur by the end of the year, the 2011 total wouldn't be abnormally high, she said.

Park officials have attributed the uptick in fatalities to a general increase in visitors as well as intensified water conditions caused by a larger-than-normal snowpack, raising water levels and lowering temperatures in the park's rivers and streams. Cobb stressed that visitors should be aware of the risks when hiking in the park and take appropriate precautions.

"Their safety and the risks associated with hiking the park are completely up to them to mitigate," Cobb said. "It's up to them to make the appropriate decisions to make them safe. We have signs on our most popular trails that tell visitors about some of the risks, and it is up to them to heed them."

The Mist Trail was also the site of a fatal incident in May, when a man drowned after he slipped on the trail and fell into the Merced River. In June, three hikers died when they climbed over a guardrail and were swept over the park's popular Vernal Fall, which is at the end of the Mist Trail.

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