Rangers at Rocky Mountain National Park are searching for an aggressive black bear that bit and clawed at two campers while they were sleeping on Sunday, leaving them with serious bites and cuts on their heads and scalps.

Video

Bear Attack Victim Describes The Terror Home Video Of Bear After Attack Bear Attack Slideshow Tips When In Bear Country Concerned When Camping?

Officials released home video Tuesday of what may be the same bear, taken 45 minutes later and 200 yards away. The video was taken by Tom Bie of Boulder, Colo.

Patrick Finan, 22, of Boulder, was sleeping inside a tent near the Fern Lake backcountry site Sunday when a bear bit through the tent and grabbed hold of his head with its teeth. Finan (pictured, left) screamed and struggled and the bear let go.

"At about 7:30 I was awakened by the bear actually biting my head through the tent. (I had) no warning. It just happened," Finan said. "The bite woke me up ... I screamed, let people know the bear's around, and tried to scare the bear away and then tried to stop the blood."

The bear then walked over to another nearby tent, where Finan's friend, Tim Schuett, 23, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., was waking up to the sound of screams. Schuett screamed as the bear clawed at his tent and at his head, leaving slash marks as deep as his skull. Eventually, the bear walked away.

Three other campers at the site were not approached.

"It seemed pretty complacent about the whole thing," Finan said. "It just kind of bit me in the head, looked in my tent for about 10 seconds, then just sort of slowly walked over to Tim's tent, gave him a paw to the head and then walked away."

Friends used their cell phones to call park rangers, who arrived at 9:20 a.m. to stabilize and clean the wounds of the two victims. Finan had bite marks on his forehead and scalp and Schuett suffered deep scratches to his scalp.

Approximately an hour after these attacks, a bear matching the description of the black bear was seen at another backcountry site near Fern Lake, striking at a food storage container.

Because of this, all backcountry sites in the Odessa Gorge area were closed Sunday.

"This is a serious incident and we are treating it as such. All proper food storage was used in this campsite and the bear still acted aggressively toward the campers," said Chief Ranger Joe Evans.

The campers had taken precautions by hanging their food and cooking away from their tents the night before, but that still didn't prevent the bear from attacking them, rangers said.

It is rare for black bears to be aggressive toward humans in Rocky Mountain National Park, Evans said. The last bear attack at the park occurred in 1971 on the west side of the park. One person was killed.

Rangers said that campers or hikers should always take precautions when in the mountains.

"This is not a controlled environment, it's not an amusement park," said Kyle Patterson, spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain National Park.

Finan, who has had to have 20 stitches and several shots to prevent rabies, has donated his torn tent to the park to help them show visitors the dangers that black bears provide.

"I'm just feeling lucky that I'm here and lucky that I'm able to talk to you guys," Finan said.

He said the incident would not prevent him from hiking or camping in the backcountry.

Using a helicopter, park rangers on Monday lowered a barrel-shaped steel cage into the backcountry to capture the animal. When they do find the suspect black bear, it will be euthanized, Patterson said.

It's a a very aggressive bear that does not seem to be afraid of people, so it needs to be removed, Patterson said.

There have only been 45 deadly bear attacks in North America since 1900.

If you do come across a bear, experts say back away slowly nd try and make yourself look big. If you are attacked, fight back vigorously.