Posted on 09/11/2005 4:46:29 PM PDT by Archidamus
•As he's mauled by the bear, the marathoner can think only of his youngster's safety
In the split second before he saw the grizzly's fangs, Johan Otter heard his daughter Jenna's startled voice.
"Oh NO!" Jenna Otter, 18, had been hiking just ahead of her dad as they zigzagged up the steep switchbacks of the Grinnell Glacier Trail at Glacier National Park on Aug. 25. As she turned a blind corner just above the tree line, she stumbled into the path of a sow with two cubs.
The mother bear surged straight for the man. Her teeth sank into his right thigh, and her long claws raked his face, shattering his right eye socket.
In the surreal moments that followed, he tried to keep the bear focused on himself.
"Stay with me," he remembers thinking. "Just don't go to Jenna."
And so the bear, and the 43-year-old hospital administrator from Scripps Memorial Hospital, locked in an ancient battle hardwired into each of their genes: Protect your young at all costs. Even your life.
Otter, a marathoner, threw himself 30 feet down an embankment with the bear in pursuit to try to get further away from his daughter. The bear, estimated at about 400 pounds, landed on top of his back.
She had an "out of this world strength," said Otter. "I was like a rag doll, and I weigh 185 pounds." She flung him back and forth. By then, he could feel his spine had fractured. (Doctors would later find five breaks.)
Frantic, he tried to cover his head with his arms, as hikers are warned to do by park rangers.
"I felt her tooth go into my scalp," he said. Then he felt his scalp rip clean away.
Otter recounted his ordeal last week from Harborview Medical Center where surgeons bolted his battered body back together.
With his head clamped in the bear's jaws, he could hear his skull crack. And just as suddenly, he felt the bear release him.
He lay wedged into a stream, on a small embankment 50 feet below the trail. He couldn't move. What he couldn't see was his daughter curled into a fetal position, on a ledge 20-feet above him, her eyes wide open, facing the bear. The bear clamped down — biting first Jenna's face, then her shoulder.
Jenna didn't flinch, her father recounted later. "That's courage."
The bear, finally spent, left the two alone.
The pair, bleeding and shaken, yelled for help and within half an hour, four hikers discovered them.
Jenna Otter was treated at Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Montana, and released in good condition.
Johan Otter was airlifted to Harborview. Despite arriving with his skull exposed and having lost half his blood, he was conscious.
Doctors stabilized him until Dr. Nicholas Vedder and a team of plastic surgeons could transplant a square-foot of thin sheet muscle from his right side to make a new scalp.
Otter was released from Harborview. Doctors have said they're not sure yet how much of his eye function he'll recover, but he can already wiggle his toes, so they're optimistic about his recovery of movement.
The only thing he won't get back, for sure, is hair.
That doesn't matter to Otter. "I'm so lucky," he said.
Im sorry but why do these runners have to go into the woods to run? Cant you just jog down the stupid street?
If you are going into the woods why not pack heat?
It sucks when you discover you're not the top of the food chain.
Also bits of hair and bone?
Yeah, the grizzly might enjoy an hors d'oeuvres.
"This stuff is better than a pistol of any caliber"
Oh, you are an environmental extremist trying to decrease the surplus population.:)
The only time I ever read a true account (as opposed to testimonials) about its use against a charging grizzly, it did not stop the attack immediately, the doctor using it had to shoot multiple bursts out of the bear-sized aerosol can, and then the bear left grudgingly---no worse for the wear, apparently. The can was empty before the bear turned.
The spray is much more effective on humans.
But even with vicious bipeds you'll notice police also carry firearms.
With the possiblility of a deadly encounter with one of our ursine friends one is much better prepared with a solution that at least has the potential of lethality.
An Idahoan should know this.
Ordinary people shouldn't be in grizzly country. And grizzlies shouldn't be anywhere near ordinary people.
The only interaction between normal people and a grizz should be across the sights of a well-aimed rifle.
Called himself Timothy "Treadwell".
It certainly wouldn't be my choice for a "plinker".
Well, the Constitution trumps the administrative edict of some worthless bureaucrat.
A better choice would be a couple of cans of pepper spray.
Pepper spray is marginally effective, at best, on 150 lbs humans. I think it's effectiveness on 400 lb bears would be *zero*.
If you've got the guts and the dollars to back-em down, more power to you.
Pepper spray is marginally effective, at best, on 150 lbs humans. I think it's effectiveness on 400 lb bears would be *zero*.
On this one, you are just plain wrong.
Definitely what you want in serious bear country is this. You want an unplugged shot gun with the following loads. You want number 6 load two shots, 2 loads of magnum buckshot, and two slugs. You fire the first two right in the bears face when it pops it't teeth indicating an attack. This will somewhat blind the bear and damage it's sense of smell. Then as it begins it's charge you fire point blank in the face with the buckshot. Then as it begins to hit you place the gun straight into its body mass (hopefully chest area) and let the two slugs go into the body.
The important thing to remember is that a grizzly at prime may have up to 8 inches of fat between skin and muscle so you are going to have trouble making even the buckshot penetrate, the 6 shot and buck shot are mainly for gross bodily damage to the face, nose, eyes, ears of the animal. The slugs are to try to penetrate the body of the animal.
However, this bear that they are refering to is merely a 400 lbs grizzly, which is not large by grizzly standards. It probably was out for summer fattening up. These bears are not great for eating fresh meat, unless the woman is on her period. I didn't read whether or not the woman was, but any woman who travels in bear country at or near her period is asking for trouble. For some reason it sets bears off and causes a lot of attacks.
I have a friend who took a 750 lbs black bear in NC and that thing was somewhat aggressive, but not anywhere near that aggression of a grizzly. Fortunately for us grizzlies do not like to eat fresh food and would instead prefer to eat food that has been killed and left to rot. That reality has saved many people from actually being eaten by grizzlies.
A good handgun would work if you had something that wouldn't flatten out and use up all it's energy in the fat and hide. You need something with deep penetrating power. Remember also, a grizzly will keep going for some 8-10 minutes after his heart is blown clean out of his body if he is attacking. Some suggest that the 6 load and the buckshot can give you a chance to roll out of the grizzly's way, and the two slugs there to just set against the body of the bear and fire dead close range.
Well, a can of UDAP is $50. Take your pistol, but at least bring the bear repellant as back up. Because a grizz charging out of the trees at 50 yards will get you even if you manage to get a shot off with your pistol. Just for fun, read the testimonial by Richard Ramano on that site I posted. When that happened it made all the local newspapers.
Pepper spray? I heard that isn't very effective. In fact, some people tell that the bears like it...."Yo Karo Taco Bear."
Oops. Italics didn't work right.
But didn't a grizzly just eat a couple of them just a little while ago; some guy and his wife? Then, of course they contribute. /should not have been italics. That was my response.
You heard wrong. When used correctly, it is very effective. If you spray your tent and your campsite with it, like you would with mosquito spray, it is not effective as a deterrent, in fact it is a mild attractant to bears when used that way. Some folks found this out the hard way.
Isn't it against the law to carry in a National Park ?
Think I read that somewhere.
It is. The 454 and 480 are two of the more powerful handgun cartridges out there. I wouldn't use either one for plinking, but in the situation described, I'd rather live with the recoil than the bear.
Thats when I decided no more hikes without a gun.
As I wrote, I was comparing a 44 magnum handgun with a 30-30 rifle - apples and oranges, perhaps, but leaves both in their most commonly seen configuration.
Remington used a 24 inch barrel for the 30-30, which is odd - but they give 1800-1900 ft/lbs at the muzzle.
For the 44 in a 6 1/2 inch barrel, they show 900-1000 ft/lbs at the muzzle.
I realize there is no way to measure stopping power, particularly against a bear. My point wasn't a slam on the 44 - I think a 44 magnum rifle is darn near the perfect home defense weapon, and I'm looking for one to buy. I merely wanted to point out that even big handguns aren't as overpowering as many believe.
In the end, killing a bear requires penetration in the right area. That means a hard bullet that is aimed well - tough to do when charged. I did meet a man once who shot a grizzly with a 30-30. The bear charged him and the 30-30 was all he had - so he took one shot. The dead bear slid and knocked him down.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.