Army veteran Shayne Patrick Burke survives grizzly bear attack in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

US News

From Richard Pollina

A disabled Army veteran miraculously survived being attacked by a grizzly bear protecting her cub in the Wyoming wilderness. He described the encounter as the “most brutal” thing he had ever experienced.

Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, suffered serious injuries when he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” while climbing Signal Mountain in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park on Sunday, he wrote on Instagram.

The wildlife photographer said he set out into the wilderness alone and told his wife he would meet her back at the park parking lot in an hour because he hoped to photograph a great grey owl before she left.

About an hour after starting his solo trip, he started to head back and said he was overcome by a “really unpleasant feeling.”

“I broke off branches, sang, and talked to myself out loud,” Burke recalls. These are some of the things that can help prevent a ‘surprise encounter’ with a brown bear.”

While walking through the 310,000-acre park’s dense forest area, the Massachusetts native noticed a “brown bear cub running about 150 to 200 feet up a hill.”

“I knew this was not good,” Burke wrote.

When he saw the mother bear charging straight towards him, all hell broke loose.

The war veteran pulled out his bear spray and yelled at the bear, but the animal came closer and attacked.

“As she jumped at me, I turned around and turned my back to her. I lay on my stomach on the ground and prepared for the ride, with my hands behind my neck to protect my vital organs,” Burke explained.

The bear then bit and slashed his right rear shoulder.

“Then she turned around and kicked me on the back. She bit one of my legs, picked me up and threw me on the ground several times,” he wrote. “She bit each leg, from my buttocks to the inside of my knee, about three times each.”

He said he “unfortunately” screamed again, which drew their attention to his head.

“I think she was trying to give me a fatal bite on the neck. I still had my hands folded and my arms protecting my carotid arteries,” Burke said.

However, Burke never let go of the can of bear spray and said it was thanks to it that his life was saved.

“She bit my hands on the back of my neck and at the same time bit the bear spray can that exploded in her mouth,” writes the nature lover.

Then the former Army reservist heard the bear running up the hill to her cubs.

Burke texted his wife for help while he applied makeshift tourniquets to his legs.

He then called 911, but remained connected to the switchboard so that the rescue helicopter could locate his location.

“I was lying alone in the woods, clutching my knife, leaning with my back against a tree, hoping the bear wouldn’t come back,” while he waited for help. “At that point, my legs weren’t working properly anymore.”

Although it slowed the bleeding, the helicopter had difficulty determining his exact location.

“In that moment on that little hill, I accepted that I might well die. I recorded a short video telling my people that I love them,” he wrote.

He was later found and taken to St. John’s Hospital in Jackson, Wyoming, where he underwent surgery.

Burke is expected to make a full recovery, but said it was “the most brutal thing I’ve ever experienced,” noting that he had already been “shot at, mortared and bombed” during his time in the Army.

As for the mother bear, Burke harbors no animosity toward the wild animal.

“I love and respect wildlife,” he wrote. “The second thing I said to the park rangers was: please don’t kill the bear, she was defending her cub.”

Park officials have confirmed the attack and said the bear will not be captured or killed.

Due to the increase in the grizzly population in the region, several such attacks occur each year.

Park officials urge people to give bears plenty of space, carry bear spray and not leave food lying around that could attract bears.