Man says he’s lucky to escape grizzly

Associated Press

BOZEMAN, Mont. — A grizzly bear broke a hunter’s leg, tore up his ear and ripped gashes in his thigh and shoulder, but the man hobbled to safety after the bear stopped the attack and fled.

"I consider myself to be quite lucky," Dr. Steve Chamberlain said Tuesday.

Chamberlain, 49, an orthopedic surgeon from Medford, Ore., and David Wood of Bozeman were bowhunting for elk Saturday near Big Sky in southwestern Montana.

They were imitating the bugling call of a bull elk in mating season, but that apparently attracted the female grizzly, accompanied by two nearly grown cubs.

Chamberlain tried to pull his pistol but the charging bear was too quick.

"You cannot overstate that component," he said. "They’re very, very, very fast."

The bear first bit his left calf. "I felt my fibula break. There was no pain. It was like, ‘Oh, that’s not good,’ " he said. The fibula is the thinner of two bones in the lower leg.

The bear then bit his thigh, chewed through about 40 percent of the triceps muscle in his shoulder, and tore off one of his ears.

Wood let loose with a bear repellent spray.

Wind blew most of the pepper spray back in Wood’s face, but the bear fled. The hunters said they didn’t know if the spray chased the bear off.

"My heart kind of fell when Steve said, ‘I’m bleeding like a stuck pig,’ " Wood recalled.

Wood was temporarily blinded by the spray, but was able to determine that his friend’s wounds were not life-threatening.

"I told him to quit whining and get going," Wood said.

Chamberlain hobbled about two miles to a road, and Wood jogged about three miles farther to get their car. Chamberlain had been released from a hospital by Wednesday and was staying with a friend in Bozeman.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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