Man Fends Off Bear by Shoving Arm Down Its Throat

Man fends off bear by shoving his arm down it's throat

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(Jo Dee Black/The Great Falls Tribune via AP)[/caption]A hunter in Choteau, Montana survived a grizzly bear attack by shoving his arm down the bears throat. From the Great Falls Tribune:The ability to suppress panic and an article clipped from a magazine and passed along by his grandmother helped Chase Dellwo, 26, survive a grizzly bear mauling Saturday morning northwest of Choteau.He has a couple hundred stitches and staples in his head, some stitches on his face, a bruised and swollen left eye and deep puncture wounds on his right leg. He also has an incredible story to tell of a tangle with a 350-400 pound male grizzly. It is a story that has a good ending and no villains."I want everyone to know that it wasn't the bear's fault, he was as scared as I was," Dellwo said from his hospital bed at Benefis Health System Sunday afternoon.Chase Dellwo and his brother Shane, 30, headed out Saturday morning to bow hunt for elk. The wind was blowing 30 to 40 miles per hour with snow and rain.The brothers spotted an elk herd and decided to have Chase walk up a narrow creek bed, hoping he would drive the animals up to a ridge where Shane would wait."About 8 to 10 minutes in I heard a bull bugle, so I quickened my pace," Chase said.

It wasn't until he was just three feet away that he realized he was approaching a bear that had been sleeping. The windy conditions meant the bear was as surprised as Dellwo."I had an arrow nocked, and I put my bow up in front of me and took two or three steps back," he said. "There wasn't any time to draw my bow back."The bear knocked Dellwo off his feet and bit down on the top and back of his head."He let go, but he was still on top of me roaring the loudest roar I have ever heard," Dellwo said.The bear left and Dellwo managed to sit up."He came back and bit my lower right leg and gave it a pretty good shake and threw me a ways," he said.The bear came after him again."I remembered an article that my grandmother gave me a long time ago that said large animals have bad gag reflexes," Dellwo said. "So I shoved my right arm down his throat."It worked. The bear left.Dellwo started to walk out, bloodied and disoriented.See the rest of the story at Great Falls Tribune.[mwi-cat-listing cat="94" ppp="4" cols="4" desc="false" type="view" btn_color="black" ]