(CBS/AP) 
The boy's body was found about 400 yards away from the campsite, said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County sheriff's office.

"Truly a tragic event, said Jim Karpowitz, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "Events of this type are extremely rare in Utah."

He declined to say how the confirmation of the bear's identity was made "out of respect for the family."

Sam Ives would have been a sixth-grader at Valley View Elementary School in Pleasant Grove, Utah, this fall.

Authorities said the death was Utah's first fatal attack on a human by a black bear. It follows reports of several bear sightings during spring and occurred just hours after other people in the same primitive campsite likely encountered the same animal.

All over the West, drought and a resulting lack of food have brought bears into areas they don't usually visit, reports CBS News Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman. Not just campsites, but suburbs.

In May, officials reported black bears in Provo Canyon and Park City, including one that ripped through a screen door at a cabin where residents had burned food and opened windows.

Officers killed that bear because it showed no fear when biologists tried to scare it away with firecrackers, the wildlife agency said.

In July 2006, a black bear bit the arm of a 14-year-old Boy Scout while he slept in a tent, also in Utah County. The female bear returned to the campground and was killed.

"When it's hot and dry like this, bears are short on food and they go looking for food. And sometimes they create problems," Karpowitz said.

Black bears, which are found in 27 states, are "generally less aggressive than other bears and don't prey on humans," said Stewart Breck, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The typical human-bear conflicts involve bears breaking into homes or cars.

"But it's not breaking into a tent and killing," Breck said.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Back To Top