When a hiker and grizzly bear happened to cross paths on a recent summer day in Yellowstone, it was an encounter of the most tragic kind.

The hiker, Lance Crosby of Billings, died that day. The bear, believed to be an animal well-known to photographers, died a week later.

The deaths sparked responses from thousands around the world, ranging from sorrow to anger. Many criticized the National Park Service for its decision to euthanize the mother bear and relocate her two cubs.

While it wasn’t a popular or easy decision, it was the right one given the circumstances.

When a bear begins to consider humans as food — as evidence indicates this grizzly did — the animal could target people again. Yellowstone officials couldn’t take that chance.

“They must err on the side of caution. There are just too many bears and too many humans in close proximity,” wrote the Jackson-based Wyoming Wildlife Advocates group in a recent statement.

It’s also important to learn from recent history.

In a 2011 incident, a hiker was killed after he came upon and ran from a mother grizzly and two cubs in Yellowstone. The bear also attacked the man’s wife in the encounter. Based on evidence at the scene as well as the woman’s eyewitness account, the Park Service ruled it as a defensive attack and spared the lives of the grizzly and her cubs.

Later that summer, a second hiker was killed in a grizzly attack in Yellowstone. Evidence showed the same mother bear from the previous attack was among several bears at the site and may have fed on the man’s body. While no one will ever know whether she was responsible for his death, the grizzly was linked to the sites of two fatal attacks within weeks.

It’s understandable to fear history could repeat itself.

Mother grizzlies are known to attack in defense of their offspring, but it’s not the only reason one might target a human. Female bears with cubs “are very capable of killing humans for food,” wrote Mark Bruscino, a former Wyoming Game and Fish official, in a recent online post.

He called it “a very wise decision to remove the bear and let the niche be filled with another bear that will hopefully avoid humans at all costs.”

Wyoming Game and Fish officials made a similar decision on Thursday, when a grizzly that had frequented a residential area north of Cody also was euthanized. The bear had been captured and relocated twice before: once for killing livestock and another time for breaking into grain storage bins.

That grizzly’s death occurred on the same day as the Yellowstone bear’s, but drew far less attention.

When wildlife officials decide to euthanize an animal — whether quietly or under intense public scrutiny — it’s not a decision that’s taken lightly.

“In the field of wildlife conservation, there is nothing harder than having to take an animal’s life,” Yellowstone leaders wrote in a Saturday post on Facebook. “Resolving conflict between people and wildlife is one of the toughest challenges of our time.”

Killing a bear isn’t a punishment for the animal’s actions. It’s part of managing wildlife — a reality of living in the West.