Warning: This article contains graphic images and video which some readers may find distressing.
Shayne Burke was on his honeymoon when he had a near-fatal encounter with a mother grizzly bear that caused him to record a chilling message for his loved ones.
Not many people can say they endured a bear attack, and fewer can stake claim to having survived one.
Since the turn of the 21st century, 38 people have died at the paws of grizzlies in North America – six of those fatalities came in Wyoming, US, where the 36-year-old was visiting with his wife Chloe Burke when he happened upon a 300lb brown bear on May 19, last year.
However, unlike others, the Massachusettsan was able to escape the ordeal with his life – and despite being mauled and thrown around by the beast, he remarkably was only bed-bound in hospital for one day before being discharged.
Newly-weds Shayne and Chloe Burke were on their honeymoon exploring Wyoming last year (Shayne Burke)
The grizzly didn’t hit any of the army reservist’s arteries, so he concedes that he was ‘super, super fortunate’ in that respect, but he suffered a broken shoulder as well as a ‘ton of real superficial, butt-deep wounds’ – which miraculously weren’t infected as he crawled away from the scene.
Although, their honeymoon was all but over just eight days into it – with the pair having planned to do a tour of the national parks in the west of America.
Burke, who works for the US Department of Defense, told UNILAD: “I was up in the Tetons on my honeymoon, but it was more like an adventure trip – a three-week trip that my wife and I were on.
“So basically, we had done a little bit of research where we could locate what’s called a great gray owl, which is a species of owl I’ve never seen in the wild. So I really wanted to and our research put us up on Signal Mountain.”
The 36-year-old was exploring the Grand Teton National Park in hope of spotting a rare great gray owl when his near-fatal encounter took place (Shayne Burke)
The bird-spotter explained how his wife ended up walking back to the car after around a half-mile walk, and he continued on, but after hiking for an hour or so he decided he needed to get back to his wife.
However, looking at his GPS, Burke noticed that he could beeline it through the woods to save time, instead of following the trail around it.
“So I opted to just, you know, beeline through the woods. As I was going through the woods I was making noise and trying to do things that would prevent an attack or situation where I run into a bear, but unfortunately, I was just moving really, really fast,” he recalled.
“After a little while, I ended up, unfortunately, stumbling upon a grizzly cub. The cub was running away from me, my first response was to just take my bear spray out and get ready – just in case the mother was around.
“In the process of that happening, the mom made herself known, and she was only 15 feet at most away from me, and then it just all happened so fast.”
Immediately after the attack, Burke recorded a message to his loved ones. Watch it here:
Detailing the horrific attack and mauling that ensued, Burke said: “As soon as I kind of locked eyes with her, she was almost on top of me, and so that’s when I reacted in the defensive way – which is, get on your belly and lay down on the ground and try to play dead.
“She tackled me, biting my shoulder, breaking it. Then she started ravaging my legs and just biting me, biting me, and it was like, you know, picking me up, throwing me – but she never ripped chunks out of me like she could have.
“So after a while, when she was biting my legs, she went for my head, and because I was laying like this [with his hands and arms covering his head], and I still had the bear spray in my hand, she ended up biting the bear spray, my hand and my arm, which is what stopped the attack, because she bit the can.”
As the grizzly went to bite Burke’s head it bit down on the bear spray which in turn exploded in its mouth (Shayne Burke)
He continued: “The can contents exploded all over her, all over me. She ran away towards the road – which was the direction I was going, and they were going as well. So I got up, looked at the direction she was going, and I just had the instinct to run the opposite direction.
“So I ran back into the woods further, because this attack happened only about 500 yards away from the road, and so I ran about 200 yards back up the mountain. You know, I had to crawl over fallen trees, under fallen trees, running straight up a hill.”
Burke explained that the National Park Service (NPS) never tracked the grizzly down, although they did swab him for its DNA to see if the beast had attacked a hiker before – but those tests are still pending.
He concedes that he was simply ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ and that the bear was ‘acting in a natural capacity’, and so NPS is just going to ‘let the bear be a bear’, as it was just defending her cub from a perceived threat.
After the bear spray repelled the beast in an unconventional way, Burke crawled over and under fallen trees to get as far away as possible from it (Shayne Burke)
“So, how do you survive a bear attack?” I ask Burke.
“Essentially, there are two things – the biggest thing that contributed, in my opinion, to my survival was doing my research on where I was and what I was doing, understanding the risks involved, getting to the areas – and the national parks do a really good job at informing visitors about the risks and how to react,” Burke explained.
“So, essentially what I mean by that is, on the trailhead there’s a big bulletin board, and it tells you, ‘hey, there’s bears here. If you get attacked, this is how you should react’ – and I pretty much did that to a tee, and I’m still alive because of that, for sure.
“Having a deterrent – even though I didn’t use it in the most traditional sense – I don’t recollect whether or not I got to spray it at all, but having that with me, it did end up being what contributed to my survival.”
Incredibly, Burke was only hospitalized for one day before being discharged (Shayne Burke)
He added: “So that, and then just having some basic understanding of first aid and how to render care for yourself – because at the end of the day, you are your first responder.”
Yes, on trails where grizzlies are known to frequent, the NPS detail what you should do if a brown bear starts attacking you.
It stresses: “Cover your head and neck with your hands and arms. Lay flat on your stomach, and spread your legs apart. Keep your pack on, it will help protect you during an attack.
“Stay still and don’t make any noise – you’re trying to convince the bear that you aren’t a threat to it or its cubs. Do not get up right away because the bear may still be in the area. Wait several minutes until you are sure that the bear is gone.”
Although the guidance differs for bears acting in a predatory manner – in that case, it adds: “Fight back with everything you have.”
How I Survived is a UNILAD series detailing stories of survivors.
.png)
