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Grizzly bear carries a hiker in its mouth for several feet causing 60 puncture wounds
One hiker’s dream of climbing Mount Doogie Dowler in British Columbia became his worst nightmare when he got viciously attacked by a grizzly bear that carried him in its mouth for 30 or 40 feet before biting into his flesh.
The man, thankfully, survived and even recovered well enough in time to be able to run half a marathon. The scary experience hasn’t kept him away from hiking in the woods again, but he seems to have learned the technique to stay away from danger.
Grizzly bear viciously attacks a hiker
In 2019, Colin Dowler of Vancouver Island was on his bicycle, exploring different routes to hike up to Mount Doogie Dowler in British Columbia. That’s when he spotted a grizzly bear in a corner in the woods.
He stood still in his place and didn’t move an inch, although he knew making noises would shoo it away. Colin could see from the corner of his eye that the wild animal was moving closer to him.
The hiker thought the bear was unbothered by him when it walked past his bike, only to turn around, prompting him to put his bike between him and the bear. He pulled out his hiking pole and put it between its eyes, but the animal tossed it away at once.
He threw his bag at a distance, hoping the bear would go after the smell, but it only took a sniff before prodding him with its paw. “Each poke got a little more aggressive until it lifted its paw high. I thought it would inflict some serious damage so I threw my bike at it,” Colin told the Guardian.
Before he could prepare for the bear’s next move, it lunged forward, sank its teeth between his ribs and hips, and carried him in its mouth for “30 or 40 feet towards a bush.”
“I was in crushing pain. It put me down and I tried to gouge at its eyes but I couldnt reach. I was thrashing while it pinned me and started biting and tearing at my thigh,” he recollected.
Colin further added: �”It was so painful it felt like my hip was going to dislocate. It excavated into my thigh so far I could hear its teeth grinding against my femur like a dog chewing a bone.”
Man uses pocket knife to get out of danger
A terrified Colin, having his flesh torn by a bear, began to bid goodbye to his family but then remembered he had a pocket knife on him. Using both his hands, he gathered all the strength to reach his knife while the bear had him pinned down.
He managed to get it out of his pocket and used the blade to stab the bear’s neck with all the energy he had. The animal, clearly hurt, got off him and walked away to the bush where he had first spotted it.
Although he wasn’t under attack anymore, Colin was losing a lot of blood from the multiple wounds the animal had caused, and he had little time to act. “I cut the sleeve off my shirt and made a tourniquet for my left leg. I looked over again and the bear had gone,” he said.
He managed to drag himself to his bike and pedal using one leg for about 45 minutes until he found a loggers’ cabin. He crashed into it, yelling, and the men in the house called 911 while patching up “60 puncture wounds”.
“One wound was so big that my kidney was visible. An air ambulance came about an hour later; they gave me two pints of blood on the cabin floor and then flew me to hospital for six-and-a-half-hour surgery,” he recollected.
He survived the attack
Colin was in recovery for 40 days and by January 2020, the specialists were able to see his nerves regenerate. He started jogging on a treadmill in February and ran a half marathon in September.
He shared: “Mentally, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be getting back into the woods. I made a conscious effort to walk in the bush behind my house as soon as I could so I wouldnt be overwhelmed by fear. “
“I used tactics to help me, like playing music in headphones to drown out the noise of critters moving around. I have since bumped into a few black bears on the trails, too, but I yell and they get out of the way,” Colin added.
