To Survive a Bear Attack, Feed it Your Arm
Russ Chastain 10.08.15
Montana – 26-year-old bowhunter Chase Dellwo was reportedly walking along a creek bed, hoping to stir up some elk so they’d head towards his brother, when he almost stumbled into a huge grizzly bear. But thanks to his grandma, he survived.
He said he was within about one yard of the bear when he spotted it and theorized that the only way he could have gotten that close was that the bear had been sleeping.
Or maybe it was the delightful weather conditions, described as “snow, rain and 30- to 40-mph winds.”
Either way, the bear was definitely awake as it charged the hunter, who managed only a few steps backwards before being attacked. He was knocked off his feet and the bear bit his head, released it, and stood over the young man bellowing.
‘He let go, but he was still on top of me roaring the loudest roar I have ever heard.’
After the bear bit his leg and tossed him a ways, it came at him again. That’s when he remembered some advice he’d read years before.
‘I remembered an article that my grandmother gave me a long time ago that said large animals have bad gag reflexes,’ he said. ‘So I shoved my right arm down his throat.’
Having a still-living limb crammed into his goozler apparently didn’t agree with the critter, which then departed.
Dellwo was able to get back to his brother and later “received stitches and staples in his head, some on his face, a swollen eye and deep puncture wounds on his leg.”
After all this, the victim reportedly said, “I want everyone to know that it wasn’t the bear’s fault. He was as scared as I was.”
Scared or not, it was nobody else but the bear who chewed you up, bub.
