Press
When he saw a cub, it was already too late. A former US soldier was surprised by a female bear while out for a walk. He was seriously injured, but managed to save himself.
Wyoming – It was supposed to be a relaxing trip. Former US soldier SP Burke had actually driven to Grand Teton National Park (USA) to observe owls. On the way back to the parking lot, he was overcome by an “unpleasant feeling”. “I was breaking off branches, singing and talking loudly to myself,” Burke told the New York Post, how he wanted to avoid a possible encounter with a bear.
With luck and the right instinct: US soldier can save himself from a bear covered in blood
Actually, he had done everything right, to protect yourself from bearsBut it didn’t help. “I knew that wasn’t good,” Burke thought the moment he saw the bear cub, as he wrote on his Instagram account. He was right. Before he could react, a fully grown brown bear attacked him – the mother.
With presence of mind, the 35-year-old pulled out his bear spray and tried to scare the animal away with loud screams. But the bear charged at him undeterred. When she attacked, the former soldier instinctively threw himself onto his stomach. The bear clawed at his back and bit both of his legs, as he writes in his post on social media.
Burke then reacted quickly and protected his neck by wrapping his arms around it, still holding the bear spray tightly in his hands. “She bit my hands on the back of my neck and at the same time bit the bear spray can, which exploded in her mouth,” Burke reports.
The bear then let go of him and fled into the undergrowth. Severely injured and with heavily bleeding wounds, Burke was able to call the emergency services, which may have saved his life. The encounter with the brown bear was “the most brutal thing” he had ever experienced. He then added that he had been shot at and experienced bomb detonations during his time in the US Army.
Bear population grows in North America – incidents also in Europe
Despite the attack, Burke bears no grudge against the bear. “I love and respect wildlife,” he writes. His wish to keep the bear alive seems to be coming true. The Wyoming region has been experiencing a sharp increase in the grizzly population for some time.
Last year, a young couple and their dog died while hiking in a Canadian national park. A grizzly bear attacked them out of nowhere. They called the emergency services – but to no avail. But bear attacks also seem to be on the rise in Europe. In April, a bear ran straight through a popular tourist town in Slovakia.
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