A Boy Scout troop leader was attacked and injured by a bear on Sunday afternoon during a hike at Split Rock Reservoir in Rockaway Township, N.J., officials said. 
 
 The troop leader, Christopher Petronino, 50, of Boonton, N.J., was airlifted to a hospital, where he was treated for bites and scratches on his scalp and legs, Bob Considine, the director of press operations for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said. The three boys who had been with the troop leader were safe, he added. 
 
 Mr. Petronino wanted to show the boys a cave he had been visiting since the early 1980s, Mr. Considine said. He had never seen a bear there before. 
 
 The troop leader was sliding into a crevasse that forms the mouth of the cave when a black bear grabbed his foot and dragged him deeper inside, biting his leg and shoulders. He fought back by striking it twice in the head with a rock hammer. 

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 Just one day after the end of New Jersey’s extended bear hunting season, a Scoutmaster was attacked by a black bear in front of three of his Boy Scouts. Their training helped them save his life. Brian Thompson reports. (Published Monday, Dec. 21, 2015) 
 
 A trio of Boy Scouts and their dog helped their scoutmaster escape the clutches of a black bear that attacked him Sunday in a cave in New Jersey. 
 
 The scoutmaster, 50-year-old Christopher Petronino, was taken by state police helicopter to a local hospital with bites to his leg and shoulders, said Bob Considine, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Information about his condition wasn't available. 
 
 Trio of Boy Scouts Help Scoutmaster Escape Attacking Bear 
 
 A trio of Boy Scouts and their dog helped their scoutmaster escape the clutches of a black bear who attacked him Sunday in a cave in New Jersey. (Published Monday, Dec. 21, 2015) 
 
 The three Scouts, one of whom was Petronino's son, weren't harmed during the attack, officials said. 
 
 Petronino told state DEP officials after the attack that he had wanted to show his Scouts a small cave near Split Rock Reservoir in Rockaway, a borough in Morris County. He said he has known of the cave since the early 1980s and had never encountered a bear there. 
 
 Petronino said he walked up a rocky hillside and as he began to enter the cave, the bear grabbed his foot and pulled him deeper inside. The bear then bit his leg and both shoulders, he said. 
 
 Petronino said he struck the bear twice in the head with a rock hammer and then pulled his sweatshirt over his head and curled into a fetal position. He said he shouted to the Scouts to leave the area and get help. 
 
 The Scouts contacted a 911 operator on Petronino's cellphone, but were unable to give the dispatcher specific information about their location. 
 
 Meanwhile, the bear eyed Petronino in the cave. The scoutmaster said he kept his back to the beast and could hear it "huffing." 
 
 He shouted to the Scouts to toss any food they had at the mouth of the cave. 
 
 The bear eventually lumbered out. When it did, one of the Scouts' dog barked and snarled at the bear, who then ran up the hillside, the Scouts said. 
 
 Petronino said he scampered out of the cave as soon as he heard the bear leave. He then used the cellphone to provide the police dispatcher a better description of their location. 
 
 Area police firefighters and a state police helicopter had been searching for the Scouts and were able to locate them using the GPS coordinates of the cellphone. 
 
 Officials estimated that one hour and 20 minutes had elapsed between the Scouts' 911 call and Petronino's call. 
 
 The attack occurred a day after the end of the state's extended bear hunting season. Hunters killed 504 bears during the season, according to state records. 
 
 Copyright Associated Press
– Since the time he was a much younger man, Christopher Petronino has been exploring a cave at Split Rock Reservoir in Rockaway Township, NJ. On Sunday, the 50-year-old Boy Scout troop leader decided to show the cave he first entered some three decades ago to his son and the two other scouts he was hiking with. He began to enter feet-first through the crevasse-type entrance—when a black bear seized his foot. The New York Times reports the animal pulled Petronino into the cave and began biting him. That was just the start of the ordeal. NJ.com reports that Petronino twice struck the bear in the head with a rock hammer then told the boys to call 911. He assumed a fetal position with his back to the bear and put a sweatshirt over his head, reports NBC New York. The boys did call, but were unable to provide their location to the 911 operator; officials began to try to track their coordinates and dispatched a helicopter. Petronino next told the boys to place the food they were carrying just outside the cave. That was enough to get the bear to emerge, and a dog that was with the group then scared the bear off. All told, Petronino spent "a substantial amount of time" with the "huffing" bear in the cave, before emerging and himself calling 911. Help arrived 80 minutes later, and he was airlifted out, says a rep for the state's Department of Environmental Protection. Petronino suffered bites to his scalp and legs; the boys were unharmed. Officials are now trying to trap the bear, which they believe "was protecting its hibernation location ... they do not, at this point, consider the bear to be a Category I bear," meaning one that must be euthanized.