Official: Bear bites man, both roll off North Carolina cliff

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — An attempt to tree a bear in North Carolina has ended with a hunter injured and the bear dead.

North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission Capt. Andrew Helton told  the Asheville Citizen Times the hunter rolled off a slight cliff with the 350-pound (159-kilogram) bear on Saturday.

Helton says the hunter was with another man who had shot the bear while it was in a tree near Mount Sterling in Haywood County. The bear fell out of the tree and began biting the hunter. The bear walked away after the two tumbled off the cliff.


Helton says Wildlife Resource officers found the bear dead on Sunday. It was taken to a state Department of Agriculture lab for rabies testing. The hunter was taken to a hospital in Asheville with several injuries.