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The National Park Service has identified the Montana man who was attacked by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday as a photographer and author who writes about bears and who has survived a bear attack once before.

Jim Cole, 57, of Bozeman, Mont., suffered severe injuries to his face in Wednesday's attack, officials say. He told park rangers that he had been attacked by a sow grizzly bear with a cub.

A spokeswoman at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, said that Cole was listed in fair condition Thursday.

According to the National Park Service, Cole is a photographer and author who has published books on the lives of grizzly bears in Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. The release said he was injured in September 1993 by a grizzly in Montana's Glacier National Park.

Cole was acquitted in June 2005 of willfully approaching within 100 yards of bears in Yellowstone. Cole said he came upon the bears inadvertently, snapped a few pictures and backed away slowly.

The Park Service said Cole was hiking alone, off-trail, along Trout Creek in Hayden Valley, in grizzly habitat Wednesday. The agency said that Cole was carrying bear pepper spray but that it's unclear whether he was able to use it against the sow.

"I was told that the injuries to his face were severe," Al Nash, a Yellowstone spokesman, said Wednesday.

"We really don't know what happened, but I don't think it was a bite," Nash said. "The type of injuries that were described to me were the type you would see with clawing."

Cole told rangers he was attacked by a female grizzly with her cub while taking photos. He said he walked two to three miles to seek help.

Grizzly bears and black bears, including sows with cubs, are active throughout Yellowstone at this time of year. Park visitors are encouraged to travel in groups, make noise and carry canisters of bear pepper spray.

Bear sightings should be reported to visitor centers or ranger stations as soon as possible, the release said. Food, garbage, barbecue grills and other things that could attract bears must be kept in hard-sided vehicles or bear-proof food storage boxes.

There were no human injuries from bears in Yellowstone last year, and only eight minor injuries have been reported since 2000, the Park Service reports. The last bear-caused human fatality in the park was in 1986.

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