An Amazing Story
A man out bow hunting near Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada had the bad luck to surprise a grizzly bear with three cubs. Miraculously, when the bear attacked the man, Chris McLellan, managed to kill it with only a knife.
GRANDE PRAIRIE — A bow hunter who fought off a mother grizzly bear with only a knife was an avid woodsman with years of experience in the bush, his sister says.
Chris McLellan managed to kill the bear southwest of Grande Prairie last week when he apparently surprised it while she was with her three cubs.
Christa McLellan says her brother, who recently married and moved to Alberta from Nova Scotia on Aug. 12, had to have surgery to insert plates to repair his badly broken arm, but is otherwise fine.
"He's in the hospital and he's recuperating," she said, adding her brother knew what he was doing in the bush.
"He's been out with my father since he was a kid. He's not a newbie to this."
One outfitter, who lives on land close to where the attack occurred, said he spotted the sow and her three cubs just days before the attack.
Dave Coleman, an outfitter for 44 years, commended McLellan for keeping his wits about him in such a desperate situation, noting the bear would likely have been fierce.
That is keeping your wits in a bad situation. The bear would have killed him if he had tried to escape.
By Lars Walker, Tuesday, 21 August , 2007 @ 10:21 am
I think Wild Bill Hickok told a story of killing a bear with a knife, which is generally not believed. Perhaps he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
By ThomasD, Tuesday, 21 August , 2007 @ 6:12 pm
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The bear would have killed him if he had tried to escape.
Sorry, that is an assertion not supported by facts. I'm not going to criticize the hunter, he was in a very dangerous, very likely life threatening situation and did what he felt necessary. But neither are all bear attacts predatory nor are they always fatal. Many bear attacks are considered 'defensive' in that the bear feels threatened and is responding as bears do. They don't necessarily want to kill, they just want to know that you are going to back down. This is especially so when dealing with a mother and cubs. Many, many people have survived such attacks by playing dead or using less lethal methods (pepper spray.) In fact, two acquantances of mine, a husband and wife, survived just such an encounter in Glacier National Park in 1998.
http://www.yellowstone.net/newspaper/news102898.htm
Playing dead will not save you if the attack is predatory in nature and bear spray isn't foolproof either. Actively responding to a 'defensive' attack is quite likely to escalate the level of violence and may turn something non-lethal into a death match. There are few guarantees when dealing with a grizzly. But one thing is pretty certain; once you poke a bear with a knife one of you is not getting out alive.
(EDIT: I don't know which tags were left open, but it was causing holy heck with the whole blog - Hopefully I corrected it without having to delete the comment.)
By Gaius, Tuesday, 21 August , 2007 @ 6:51 pm
I specifically said “if he had tried to escape”. Every bear advice thing I have read said that is a bad thing. Stand and try to make yourself “big”, throw a rock, use a spray or play dead but never try to run or climb a tree.
The playing dead thing is least successful with grizzly bears, as I understand it.
By ThomasD, Tuesday, 21 August , 2007 @ 8:26 pm
sorry for whatever formatting issues caused the snafu.
Actually, the general recommendation for grizzly encounters is to play dead unless you are certain it is a predatory attack - then your choices truly are win or die trying.
Making yourself big is one of the preferred strategies for black bear or big cat encounters, not grizzlies. Black bears and cougars are more likely to back down when faced with an unknown threat, grizzlies are far less predictable. You want to de-escalate grizzly encounters if at all possible.
http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/bears.htm
You are correct about not running away, the concern being that you could trigger a predatory chase response, turning a possibly defensive attack into a predatory one. That same recommendation goes for other bears and cats.
Describing the attack Matt said at the time he -knew- he shouldn’t run from the bear and he did not consciously intend to run, but that once the bear was coming at him he found his body running anyway - regardless of what his mind was telling him. Tracy, who played dead both times the bear came after her actually suffered less severe injuries.
So I won’t criticize anyone who survives a bear attack no matter what they’ve done. In the couple years I spent in and around Glacier I had multile bear encounters, a couple at close range, thankfully none serious. In that same time frame about half a dozen people were mauled and one was killed (reconstruction of the scene strongly indicated he was hunted and killed by a mother with two older cubs.)
By Gaius, Tuesday, 21 August , 2007 @ 9:08 pm
NP on the formatting. I was glad I didn’t have to delete the comment. Here’s another link:
http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/wildlife/bears.php
Like I said, all the advice is never, ever try to run from a bear. (And every bear encounter is a real crap shoot - you really never know what the hell the bear is going to do.)
And frankly, I don’t know if I could keep from running if one came at me, despite knowing all that.
I wasn’t there, so I’ll assume McLellan made the only good choice he had available. It is still an amzing story of survival. (And so are ones where the people managed to survive without killing the bear.)
By chris mclellan, Tuesday, 28 August , 2007 @ 11:16 pm
Hello to anyone who see’s this. i have just gotten out of the U.O.A hospital today. (tues,28th) I have no idea if this was a diffencs attack or other but I will get to spend another day with my new wife and my 9 year old son so I don’t care what anyone has to say. I’M HERE, thanks, chris Mclellan.
By Gaius, Wednesday, 29 August , 2007 @ 3:05 pm
And I, for one, am very happy for you and for your family, Chris. Best of luck and heal up soon.
By Vicky, Saturday, 1 September , 2007 @ 11:47 am
Always thinking of you. If any of you have the right to comment on a situation between life and death, in a split second,and you want to use pepper spray to defend yourself, good on you. Nobody can say what they would do or not do in a situation like Chris’s .I personally am thankful that I can see Chris in person and not have to go to his funeral.. I hope you have a good recovery. Love you guys.
By Jason .S, Friday, 7 September , 2007 @ 10:41 pm
Good thing you had a sharp knife hey.