BIG SKY, Montana (CBS2) — A Montana man is recovering in Utah after a grizzly bear attacked him while he tracked a deer. The incident happened over the weekend southwest of Big Sky, Montana. The surrounding area is closed as wildlife officials search for the bear.
CBS2's Sinclair sister station in Salt Lake spoke to the man's sister and shared what happened and what saved his life.
"Two inches lower, and it would have got his jugular, and he would have been dead." Utah mom Kary Noorlander-Lyman could not sleep after learning a bear mauled her brother. "My first reaction was, is he even going to make it?"
Rudy Noorlander loves the outdoors. He runs a side-by-side rental business, and this weekend, a dad and son duo asked him to help track a wounded deer near Big Sky. They tried to find the deer and discovered a smaller bear. Rudy exited his vehicle when a larger bear appeared from behind a tree.
"He had one second from the time that he saw the grizzly charging him to fire... It misfired, and so then the bear was on top of him." He tried to fight back the attack from what Rudy described as a ten-foot grizzly. He hit the bear on the nose, and the dad and son stepped in to help Rudy. "[The dad] waited until he could get a shot off and scare the bear away, which he did."
Rescue workers flew Rudy to a hospital in Bozeman before he was taken to Salt Lake. The bear shook him around. There were puncture wounds on his head and arms from bites and claw marks across his chest and right leg.
Kary says Rudy uses a whiteboard to communicate. "He wrote on his whiteboard, 'Bear French kissed me.'" It seems Rudy has not lost his sense of humor.
His family says Rudy is a Navy veteran. While the VA insurance helps, it does not cover all the costs. Rudy will likely be out of work for the rest of the year recovering. On Tuesday, he went into surgery to begin taking steps to reconstruct his jaw.
If you want to help his family and donate to the online fundraiser, click HERE.
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