‘PREDATORY INSTINCT’

Massive Grizzly Came Back and Killed California Woman After She Chased It Off

Leah Lokan’s neighbors at the Montana campsite awoke at 4 a.m. to see a dark shape “pouncing up and down” on her tent.

A “food conditioned” grizzly bear with a “predatory instinct” returned to a woman’s Montana campsite to fatally maul her an hour after she scared it away, wildlife officials said in a new report. Last July, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee wrote, 65-year-old Leah Lokan had been sleeping alone in her tent around 3 a.m., pitched behind a museum in the town of Ovando, when she awoke to the sound of a bear outside, close enough that it “huffed” at her head. She alerted her campsite neighbors, a Texas couple, who helped her make loud noises to chase the animal off. The couple inquired if she wanted to move to a hotel for the night, but Lokan declined. She moved her food supplies out of her tent, armed herself with a can of bear spray, and went back to sleep. The couple told investigators they woke up an hour later to see a dark shape “pouncing up and down” on Lokan’s tent. An autopsy cited in the report later confirmed that she had been killed instantly when the bear severed her neck and spine. The 417-pound animal was caught and killed by officials days later.