‘A bear meet and greet’: KIRO hosts swap scariest wildlife stories after black bear sends father and child to hospital

A father and a child were hospitalized after a black bear attacked them on a residential property north of Lake Whatcom on Sunday evening.

KIRO host Jake Skorheim said the story hit close to home in more ways than one.

“They call it an encounter, but I think it’s safe to call it an attack,” Jake said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “It’s not like they just met up and got a high-five.”

Both victims were treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and released, according to KIRO 7. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has set a trap at the site and increased patrols in the area, but the bear has not been captured.

The incident is the second bear encounter near Lake Whatcom in about a month. A woman walking her dog was charged and chased by a black bear on a trail in the same area on Aug. 15, The Bellingham Herald reported.

“It was a bear meet and greet,” KIRO fill-in host Greg Tomlin joked.

‘One of my bigger fears’

Jake asked Greg whether he’s ever encountered a bear in nature.

“From far, far, far away,” Greg said. “It’s one of my bigger fears, actually.”

Greg said he’s never gone so far as to buy bear mace at REI, but he has thought about it. The cougars that roam trails near his house give him more immediate pause.

“Sometimes we’ll go on trails by my house, and I think, there could be a cougar,” Greg said.

Jake recalls Alaska bear attack survivor

Jake recalled one of the show’s most widely shared interviews — a man from eastern Washington who was attacked by a brown bear on a hunting trip in Alaska.

“His cousin was hunting with him. They got off a bunch of shots on this bear, didn’t even kill it, and still they somehow survived,” Jake said. “His face was all torn up. Really super nice guy, and thank God he survived.”

Greg’s Yellowstone encounter

Greg shared his own closest call, and it wasn’t a bear. It was a field full of bison at Yellowstone National Park.

“My dad and maybe an uncle decided, ‘Oh, we need to go fishing, but let’s find a remote spot,'” Greg said. “So we all have our fly-fishing rods, and we walk out in this huge field, and all of a sudden there’s like hundreds of bison just lying down, and we’re walking within 10 yards of them.”

The math became terrifyingly clear.

“If one of these bison gets set off and starts a stampede, we are dead,” Greg said.

Jake pointed to a widely circulated video from earlier in the summer where a bison charged and flipped an elderly man.

“He was as far back as they tell you to be,” Jake said. “They’re territorial. They’ll come at you on a whim.”

Wildlife officials are advising residents near Lake Whatcom to secure trash cans, pet food, bird feeders, and outdoor grills, as black bears are especially drawn to human food sources in the fall as they prepare for winter.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3