South Hadley man recalls bear attack in Wyoming’s Grand Teton

A National Park Service official confirmed Sunday that Burke is the man who survived the bear attack near Signal Mountain last weekend. Burke could not be reached for an interview Sunday.

In his first public account of his near-death experience, Burke wrote: “I thought long and hard about how I would tell my story of my encounter with a grizzly bear and her cub.”

Burke said he loves and respects wildlife and pleaded with park rangers not to kill the bear.

“She was defending her cub,” Burke wrote. “What happened atop Signal Mountain was a case of ‘wrong place, wrong time.'”

Park officials have stated that the bear will neither be killed nor captured.

Burke said he set out that Sunday morning to search for and photograph great grey owls. He was hiking through “a dense forest area in a valley” in the wilderness when he spotted a small brown cub running up a hill about 150 to 200 feet away.

He immediately took the can of bear spray out of the holster, but the mother bear appeared and attacked before he could use the spray.

“I stood my ground, screamed, and tried to use the bear spray, but by the time I did, she was already closer,” Burke wrote. “When she struck, I turned around and turned my back to her. I lay on my stomach on the ground and braced myself for the ride, with my hands behind my neck to protect my vital organs.”

The first bite and cut hit his back and right shoulder, Burke said. He screamed.

The bear stepped on his back, bit his leg, then picked him up and threw him to the ground several times, Burke said. The bear bit each leg about three times, from the buttocks to the inside of the knees.

Burke’s next cry, he said, drew the bear’s attention to his head.

“I think she was going to give me a fatal bite in the neck,” Burke said. “I still had my hands clasped and my arms protecting my carotid arteries. I never let go of the bear spray can.”

When the bear bit Burke on the neck, “she simultaneously bit the bear spray can and it exploded in her mouth,” Burke wrote. “That saved my life during the first attack.”

The bear ran away and Burke ran in the opposite direction, he said.

Burke tried to call his wife, who was waiting for him in a parking lot. When the calls didn’t go through, he texted her: “Attacked.”

Burke’s wife called back as he was making improvised tourniquets on his legs using straps from his backpack, camera and fanny pack to slow the bleeding. She explained the process to him.

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

While waiting for rescue teams to arrive at the scene, Burke recorded messages for his loved ones.

A rescue team provided emergency medical care and transported Burke by helicopter to a waiting ambulance. He underwent surgery at St. John’s Medical Center in Jackson, Wyoming, where his wounds were cleaned and stapled.

“The most important thing that kept me alive during the attack was that I read and understood what to do in the event of a bear attack and that I was prepared with bear spray,” Burke wrote.

“Although I’m not sure I sprayed any of it on the bear,” Burke continued, “the only reason I’m telling my story now is that I had it with me and held it in my hands while protecting my vital organs.”

Because of the attack, park authorities closed the 2,350-meter-high mountain to all hikers. This is routine in the event of a bear attack.

Rangers track and research the approximately 1,000 grizzly bears in the Yellowstone area, which includes Grand Teton National Park.

You can reach Tonya Alanez at [email protected]. Follow her @talanez.