Runner Mauled by Black Bear in Popular National Park

An ultra-runner in California was mauled by a massive black bear in the Yosemite Valley last weekend, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Jon-Kyle Mohr, 33, had been planning his 50-mile run for years, but never factored in the presence of bears. Last Sunday, Mohr left his home in June Lake, above the Sierra Nevada, and ran down into the Yosemite Valley. Just after nightfall, when he was but a few hundred feet from the end of his journey, a towering black bear attacked him from behind.

Mohr recalled feeling “some sharpness” in his shoulder before suddenly being brought to the ground. When he looked up, he saw a group of people shining their flashlights in his direction and yelling, “Bear!”

That’s when Mohr noticed the hungry black bear standing directly in front of him, seemingly challenging him. The collision had knocked a bag of food trash from the bear’s mouth, and before Mohr could process what to do, the bear “was coming back at me,” he recalled.

Mohr began yelling and slamming his running poles into the pavement as the nearby campers grabbed pots and pans, banging them loudly as they rushed to the runner’s aid. Their efforts worked at scaring off the bear, which quickly ran back into the woods under cover of night.

Aside from a few scratches, Mohr didn’t sustain any serious injuries during the ordeal. He feels remarkably lucky to have survived the skirmish considering the force of the bear’s initial blow. “If it seriously wanted to inflict any kind of actual harm, it totally could have,” he said.

While black bear sightings are quite common in Yosemite, attacks are exceedingly rare. Even more uncommon are “accidental collisions,” as the Times referred to this instance. As of July 6, the park has only reported eight “incidents” concerning bears. That number is actually down 20 percent from 2023, which saw 38 total bear incidents.

Mohr is still trying to reconcile the lucky timing of his own bear incident, which came at the tail end of his 16-hour journey. If anything had been different about the scenario, Mohr may not have made it out alive.

“It was just a really strange, random collision,” he marveled. “If I had rested my feet for 20 seconds longer at any point over the sixteen hours, it wouldn’t have happened.”