A black bear attacked a child inside a tent in Montana on Aug. 11, according to state wildlife officials.

In a statement released on Aug. 13, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said the attack happened at a private campground south of Red Lodge, a city about an hour southwest of Billings.

Wildlife officials said they found “unsecured attractants, including garbage, a cooler, and human food, around and inside the tent where the attack occurred.”

NBC Montana reported the child was a 3-year-old girl, though Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks declined to confirm the victim’s age and gender to TODAY.com on Aug. 13.

The child was taken to a nearby hospital, officials said.

Game wardens and bear specialists from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks set a trap at the campsite on Sunday evening and worked with the campground owner to evacuate the campground by the morning of Aug. 12, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. After the campground was fully evacuated, they set up more traps and snares.

“The bear was captured on the afternoon of Aug. 12, and was shot and killed,” according to the statement from wildlife officials. “The black bear involved in the incident had no history of conflicts. However, the bear had likely become food-conditioned and human-habituated after accessing unsecured attractants in the area.”

“Evidence at the site matched the physical characteristics of the bear and FWP believes the bear killed was the bear involved in the attack.”

Why wild bears frequent human campgrounds

When a wild bear discovers it can eat out of a garbage can or cooler at a campsite, wildlife officials call that becoming habitualized. The bears often stop searching for acorns and other mast (the fruits and nuts of trees and shrubs) and instead go for the easier targets like campground garbage bins and open dumpsters.

A 2019 GPS tracker study of black bears in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee found that nearly all black bears left the safe confines of the park to go into nearby cities.

“The food-conditioned bears had the smallest home-ranges. Because they locked in on trash and other human sources of food, they didn’t have to travel as far,” study author Jessica Braunstein told Knoxville, Tennessee NBC affiliate WBIR.

Staying ‘bear aware’ in bear country

When venturing out into bear country, people should do their best to avoid encountering them, officials said in a release.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks offers the following suggestions:

• Keep food and anything with a scent out of tents.
• Dispose of garbage in bear resistant bins; otherwise, take it with you and dispose of it properly elsewhere. Do not bury or burn garbage.
• Follow local land management agency food storage orders and properly store unattended food and anything else with a scent.

Some food storage options include bear boxes (large metal storage boxes often available at campgrounds) or hard-sided vehicles like a car or RV, though officials say not to leave food in your car for extended periods of time (like a backcountry trip for several days). Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks also suggests investing in a personal IGBC-certified bear resistant container or getting temporary electric fencing.

RED LODGE, Mont. — A black bear mauled and injured a 3-year-old girl in a tent at a private campground in Montana just north of Yellowstone National Park over the weekend, state wildlife officials said.

The girl was attacked at about 10 p.m. Sunday at a campground south of Red Lodge and taken to the hospital in Billings. Fish, Wildlife and Parks didn’t have any information on her condition on Tuesday, game warden Randy Hutzenbiler said.

The campground was evacuated and traps were placed in the area. A bear believed to have been involved was captured and euthanized on Monday afternoon, Hutzenbiler said. The wildlife agency still has traps in the area.

“There were attractants in the area,” Hutzenbiler said, which can include food and unsecured garbage.

The wildlife agency recommends keeping food, garbage and anything with a scent out of tents and stored in bear-resistant containers or vehicles.

Celine Dion’s career-defining song, “My Heart Will Go On,” will continue to go on — but preferably and legally not at events for Donald J. Trump, who is running as the Republican nominee for president of the United States.

The song, best remembered from the cinema blockbuster “Titanic,” was used at Trump’s rally when he came to Bozeman on Friday.

Commentators and social media was abuzz about the video from the event because the popular song, which is now 28 years old, is synonymous with a massive sinking ship.

But its use during the Friday rally, which featured most notable Montana Republicans, didn’t escape the notice of Dion herself, who, along with her record label, took to Twitter to demand that Trump’s campaign immediately stop using the song.

Her statement read:

Emails to the Trump campaign by the Daily Montanan on Monday went unanswered.

Today, Celine Dion’s management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., became aware of the unauthorized usage of the video, recording, musical performance, and likeness of Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On” at a Donald Trump / JD Vance campaign… pic.twitter.com/28CYLFvgER

— Celine Dion (@celinedion) August 10, 2024

It’s also unknown whether the Trump campaign intends to continue using the song in the future. Trump’s presidential campaign hasn’t scheduled many events recently, with Bozeman’s rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy being the notable exception. Trump’s campaign has told CNBC and other media that it will not go back on the road until after the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Chicago. That concludes next Thursday, Aug. 22.

It’s not the first time that the Trump campaign has run into trouble with its musical selection.

Trump was noted for using the Village People’s disco hit, “Y.M.C.A.,” but in 2023 a letter from the group’s lawyer demanded that he stop using that song, according to Rolling Stone.

There’s a growing number of artists and groups (of people dead and alive) that have demanded, either legally or publicly, that Trump stop using their recordings at his rallies or events associated with him, including The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Leonard Cohen and Luciano Pavarotti.

In fact, there’s a Wikipedia page dedicated to chronicling the artists who have demanded Trump stop and what songs the campaign was using.

It wasn’t the only hiccup related to the Montana event. On Friday, Trump’s “Trump Force One,” a Boeing 757, was forced to land in Billings because of a mechanical issue.

However, afterward as he traveled to private fundraisers in Wyoming and Colorado, he flew on a plane once owned by infamous financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump and Epstein were associates, although Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s felonious activities, including using one of his private jets that was later dubbed “The Lolita Express.”

The Trump campaign told USA Today that it did not know about the plane’s history when it was pressed into service.