Man fights off bear with a hatchet in Mammoth Lakes

A young 70-pound black bear is dead after a violent encounter with two Mammoth Lakes residents and their dogs on Monday morning.

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The incident began around 6 a.m. in the Old Mammoth neighborhood of Mammoth Lakes, when a woman inside her residence heard her dogs barking, said Kory Collins, an assistant chief for the law enforcement division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The woman went outside, where she saw one of her dogs fighting with a black bear. The second dog ran out of the house when the woman opened the door and also began fighting the bear.

The woman attempted to intervene. “She tried to separate them by scaring [the bear] off, by throwing a water bottle,” Collins said. “The bear then turned and attacked her, charged her and attacked her.”

A male resident was also inside the house and, after hearing the commotion, came outside and saw the bear attacking the woman. The man then found a hatchet and returned to scare the bear off, Collins said. At that point, the bear turned on the man and attacked him as well. Using the blunt end of the hatchet, the man struck the bear multiple times.

“He struck it in the head several times with a hatchet,” Collins said. “The bear finally got off him and walked a short distance away.”

The assault with the hatchet critically injured the bear and stopped the fight.

Both the man and the woman sustained serious injuries. “Scratches and bites,” Collins said. They drove themselves to the hospital to receive medical treatment. The two dogs came away with minor injuries and are expected to make a full recovery. 

Mammoth Lakes police officers responded to the scene first, but a spokesperson from the department said the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is the lead agency on the investigation. Wildlife officials arrived at the scene soon after the police. The bear was still alive, but Collins did not know if it was conscious or not. “It was seriously injured, and it was not able to stand,” he said. Wildlife officials ultimately euthanized the bear in the interest of public safety, Collins said. 

The bear was deemed a public safety threat because it was aggressive toward humans, Collins said. In a normal situation, if a person yells, throws a water bottle and makes noise, the bear should run away. Instead of running away, it “aggressively” went after the woman and the man. “It took him to the ground,” Collins said.

Environmental scientists chemically immobilized the bear and then used euthanasia drugs to end its life. They estimated that the bear was 17 months old, which is the age when bears have just separated from their mothers.

Many details about the incident remain unknown. There were no other witnesses. Collins did not have information about who provoked the fight: the dog or the bear. He did not know whether the dog that was outside was on a leash or roaming free. The second dog that exited the house was off-leash. 

“See, that’s the thing. No one was there to witness it, so we don’t know,” Collins said. “The bear could have been sleeping, or the dog could have been sleeping on the porch and the bear came up to it. Or the bear could have been in the driveway and the dog started barking, so the bear came to it. I mean, there was no one outside to witness it. It’s just the lady heard the dog barking and the commotion, so she went outside.”

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Authorities did not know if the water bottle the woman used in the altercation was made of soft plastic or a heavier metal, Collins said. 

The nature of this incident — where a bear charged and attacked two humans — is “extremely rare,” said Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Dan Casabian in a statement. 

“Bears almost always avoid humans and will flee when confronted,” Casabian said. “This type of aggressive behavior is highly unusual.”

Collins agreed: “I’ve been doing this for almost 16 years, and I’ve never seen this happen.” 

In 2024, an adult male black bear swiped at a 61-year-old woman who was camping in the Mammoth Lakes Basin. The encounter was recorded on a cellphone video, and wildlife officers deemed it a public safety threat and euthanized the bear. That bear was well known among Mammoth locals, who had named it Victor. In the aftermath of Victor’s death, an uprising of residents in Mammoth Lakes expressed anger at the treatment of Victor and grieved his death. 

The Mammoth Lakes Police Department and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife urged residents and visitors to never approach or feed bears, keep garbage securely stored in bear-proof containers, and avoid leaving pet food or bird feeders outside. These actions go a long way toward preventing conflicts with bears. 

The agencies also recommend that people keep their dogs leashed and supervised and that, if they encounter a bear, they give it space and slowly back away. Officials asked the public to immediately report any aggressive bear behavior to either the Mammoth Lakes Police Department or the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.