33-year-old Anthony Pollio was described by family as a “very smart, fearless man.”
GLACIER, Mont — The hiker who was found dead in Montana’s Glacier National Park from a suspected bear attack has been identified as 33-year-old Florida man Anthony Pollio.
Pollio went missing May 3 after hiking a trail in the national park and his body was found with “injuries consistent with a bear encounter” three days later, the National Park Service said in a statement.
“Anthony was a fearless man,” father Arthur Pollio told WPLG. “He was an experienced hunter. Tons of experience. Educated. Very smart.”
The National Park Service is still investigating what led up to the attack, but said evidence suggests it was a “surprise encounter.”
“The bear just attacked him and killed him,” Arthur Pollio said.
Arthur Pollio told the Sun Sentinel Anthony had left him a voicemail shortly before the attack.
“He says, ‘Dad, I’m hiking up a mountain. It’s wild out here,'” he told WVTJ. “He says, ‘I love you, dad,’ and that was the last message I received from him.”
The incident would mark Glacier National Park’s first fatal bear-related death since 1998, when a person was killed in the Two Medicine Valley. The last reported bear injury in the park occurred in August 2025.
Glacier National Park is home to roughly 1,000 bears, including both black bears and grizzlies. Park officials estimated about 300 grizzly bears lived in the park in 2023, according to NBC News.
The section of trail, Mt. Brown Trail toward the Mt. Brown Fire Lookout, where the incident occurred has been temporarily closed while the investigation continues, the National Park Service said. No other information, including any update on the bear, is known at this time.