A disabled military veteran played dead while clutching his bear spray to escape a vicious grizzly bear attack in Wyoming last Sunday, FOX26 reported.
The attack happened when 35-year-old Shane Patrick Burke was attempting to photograph a spotted owl on Signal Mountain in Grand Teton National Park. Fox 26.
“It was the most violent thing I’ve ever experienced,” Burke said. Instagram A post describing an encounter: “I’ve been through gunfire, mortar fire, IED explosions. I’m a disabled veteran in the Army Reserves.” (Related article: Pennsylvania woman severely injured in bear attack recounts terrifying experience from hospital bed)
A disabled veteran who survived a grizzly bear attack describes the moment his instincts kicked in and how it helped him survive. https://t.co/HluToSV9rc
— FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) May 26, 2024
Burke said he was rushing back to the parking lot after going out alone looking for owls when he “got really uncomfortable” and tried to scare the bear away by breaking branches, singing and talking to himself.
After he reached the top, Burke noticed a cub running up the hill in front of him and knew something was wrong so he pulled out his bear spray, then the cub’s mother lunged at Burke.
“When she jumped on me I decided to turn so my back was on her,” Burke wrote in the post. “I lay on my stomach with my hands behind my neck braced for survival.”
Burke said the bear bit him on the shoulder, leg and buttocks, then threw him to the ground, stood on his back and attempted a “finalizing” bite on his neck.
“I still had my hands clasped together and my arms protecting my carotid artery,” he wrote, “and I never let go of the can of bear spray. When she bit the hand behind my neck, she also bit into the can of bear spray, causing it to explode in her mouth. This saved my life.”
Burke said he improvised a tourniquet on his leg after the bear ran off and managed to reach his wife, who was then transported by helicopter to a local hospital where he is expected to make a full recovery.
“What happened on Signal Mountain was just the wrong place, wrong time,” Burke wrote. He loves wildlife and urges park rangers not to harm the bears.
