BOZEMAN - Wildlife officials say a grizzly bear attacked a bowhunter in the southern Gravelly Mountains near Ennis over the weekend.

Sam Sheppard, a game warden with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the Sunday morning attack left Matt Menge of Bozeman with a broken right forearm and large cuts to the head. The warden described the attack as fast and sudden.

"This is just something that has the potential to happen when people archery hunt in those areas with a resident grizzly bear population," he told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. "You're stealthing along, cammo-ed up, being extremely quiet and you just bump into them."

Sheppard said Menge was hunting near the west fork of the Madison River south of Ennis. The man, who had driven up to the area with a friend, was traveling back to his truck alone when the attack happened and couldn't reach for his bear spray in time.

Sheppard said no management action is planned for the bear.

"It's bears doing what bears do when they are surprised and archery hunters doing what archery hunters do," he said.

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