An aspiring wildlife photographer thought he’d captured a once-in-a-lifetime shot while hiking in Glacier National Park in Montana – but it ended up costing him his life
A man enjoying a mountain hike with his wife dared to take some close up shots of grizzly bears – just moments before being mauled to death by one.
Charles Gibbs, 40, and his wife, Glenda, were exploring the Glacier National Park in Montana when tragedy struck on April 25, 1987. It was around 5pm when Charles, who was about to call it a day, sensed an opportunity to capture stunning photos that would soon become haunting.
While on a slope on the Elk Mountain, they spotted a female grizzly bear with her three cubs in the distance. Charles, who was an aspiring wildlife photographer, could not resist getting a little closer.
His wife reportedly continued to the car and this goodbye was the last time she would ever see her husband alive
Charles’ final moments before his untimely passing became clear after his camera was later analysed, with one image showing the female bear making direct eye contact with him. But his last photo was even more chilling, and Charles had braved taking it at an even closer distance, just 50 yards away.
It showed the female grizzly and her three cubs charging towards him. Desperate to get away, he fled down the mountain and climbed a tree but his efforts were no good. The female bear, who saw him as a threat to her cubs, pulled him down from the tree.
She then bit and scratched the man before he briefly got away. However, his gruesome fate was sealed.
MrBallen, a YouTuber who tells “strange, dark and mysterious stories”, said on his channel: “She likely weighed around 400 pounds and when other grizzly bears are defending their young, they are absolutely merciless.
“And so she must have grabbed him, or bit on to him, and yanked him from the tree, and Charles, somehow, after being pulled to the ground and slashed and bit by this bear, he managed to break away from her as we can tell from the blood trail, and he made it about 50ft away from this tree before the bear chased him down again, jumped on top of him, and killed him.
“When authorities had figured out that Charles had managed to briefly get away from this mother grizzly bear, and made it 50ft away from her, they wondered why he hadn’t pulled out his gun and shot at the bears to defend himself.”
The YouTuber added: “But Charles’ wife Glenda said it made perfect sense that Charles had not tried to harm this grizzly bear or her cubs. He loved grizzly bears and he would never dream of leaving these three cubs without their mother.”
After his body was found, assistant park superintendent Alan O’Neill said that Charles “knew what he was getting into” and added: “The human in this case was the intruder.”