The survivor of a grizzly bear attack has told Newsweek how the wild beast ripped off his face.
Jeremy Evans—who has documented his experience in a new book—was on a hunting trip in the summer of 2017 in the Alberta Rockies in Canada when he stumbled on a grizzly bear with her cub.
Grizzly bear is a term used to refer to a brown bear in North America. There are several subspecies and variants, the most famous being the Kodiak bear.
In a paper published in 2019, 183 brown bear attacks were tallied in North America between the years 2000 and 2015—with around 14 percent resulting in human fatalities.
"I had my binoculars up and I was watching some sheep," Evans told Newsweek. "I brought my binoculars down and I noticed a little brown thing running in front of me about ten feet away. I knew right away it was a bear cub and I was like—oh s***, where's mama?"
But his question would be answered all too quickly when he heard a branch break behind him. Before he knew it, the bear was attacking.
"I found an ear in chunks of my face and I was holding it all together."
"I picked up my pack and started smashing it over the head. She chewed up my hands pretty good," he recalled. "She jumped on top of me. It was like instant. She was right there.
"Her first bite on my face, I was laying on my side. It was her two front canine teeth caught me—one in the corner of the eye and the other side of the eye and down by my jaw. She just crunched all of that in one bite," said Evans.
Evans started to fight back, poking the bear's eyes and even shoving his fingers down her throat to try and deter the attack. Crawling and panicking to find his gun, he struggled to load the weapon thanks to the serious injuries he had now suffered.
"I couldn't put a shell down the chamber of the gun. My fingers are too busted up, I found an ear in chunks of my face and I was holding it all together," said Evans. "My left eye was hanging out of the socket, so I had to pick it up or tilt my head back in order to see. My right eye—I thought it was gone—it was smashed up into my skull."
Evans was attacked at 9.36 A.M., but it wasn't until the evening of the same day that he would begin to receive medical treatment.
When the 300-pound bear finally retreated, Evans' inspiring journey to help began.
"That song played and that gave me the strength to get up and crawl out of there."
"Right after the attack I started climbing down the mountain side, I ended up falling a few hundred feet into some drainage and big boulders. I got pretty mangled up there and I couldn't really move. I called it quits at that point," he admitted.
"I pulled out my phone to try and play music and when I finally got the music to play it was Baby Shark. We just had our little one, she was six months old at the time," said Evans. "That song played and that gave me the strength to get up and crawl out of there."
"That song played on until the moment I got to the lodge in my truck—it was on repeat the whole time."
It took almost eight hours for Evans to reach the lodge where he finally got help.
"The first person to see me was a nine-year-old boy. I was walking in, shorts and a T-shirt on and my heads all wrapped up in toilet paper, my hands are all tied up and I come walking in just kind of hunched over. I remember he was hollering for grandma, he said, 'Grandma someone's trying to play a prank,' so I'm just at the door and I'm kind of mumbling like, I need some help. I was attacked by a bear."
Members of the lodge sprang into action to get Evans help—shocked by his horrific injuries. Around the back of the lodge the family had a heliport and arranged for the family helicopter to transport him to the nearest emergency room.
"They came and told me that the helicopter's coming in about half an hour and I was like, sweet, I got out of my truck and started to get my fishing rod out of there and they were like, 'What the hell are you doing?' I said I'm gonna go fishing, it's a perfect stream right here. They wouldn't let me do that," he laughed.
The helicopter took Evans to a small emergency room nearby who quickly made the decision to transfer him to Calgary where he recalls they were doing construction work and he had to go through the main door past other patients waiting to be seen.
"My family's all there. They wheeled me in, I'm missing my face, there's things hanging out and they wheel me past everybody. I guess I was sitting up waving, talking to people," he recalled.
Evans spent five weeks in the hospital and confesses he was "in pretty rough shape." With part of his skull plate exposed, he had to undergo multiple surgeries including skin grafts and facial reconstructions.
Even this though, Evans took in great humor: "They asked me if I wanted my hair and they can move hair over here and do all that. I said no, this is better this way I get half price haircuts," he laughed.
Back at work full-time just seven weeks after the attack, today his injuries are incredibly minimal.
"Don't needlessly abandon your passions in life. And family comes first."
"There's some things that don't quite work. Like I have my one pinky when I close my hand it sticks out. Oh and my eyes don't fully close, and I have no tear ducts."
Just 48 hours after leaving the hospital, he headed back to the ranch to thank the people who helped him when he arrived in need—and while he was there, he even did a little hunting.
"I was hunting within 48 hours of being outta the hospital," he said.
Evans' incredible story is the subject of a new book, written alongside award-winning journalist Crosbie Cotton.
"Crosby said, 'Well, let's write a book telling your life lessons, the things you learned about,'" said Evans. "You know, how setting small goals you can achieve incredible things. Don't needlessly abandon your passions in life. And family comes first."
Despite his miraculous recovery, Evans is still open about the struggles that came after the attack too. The ordeal left him with serious PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and requiring psychiatric support.
"When I was in hospital that first day I asked for psychiatric help. Even years after, the PTSD was constant. I was waking up with nightmares. I had to have someone with me 24/7 in the hospital because if I had a flashback, they were pretty violent," he said.
"Asking for psychiatric help is not a sign of weakness. Like that's a sign of strength."
But after receiving therapy that Evans describes as "like witchcraft," he found a way through, and today hopes that his story can inspire others in their own struggles.
"Asking for psychiatric help is not a sign of weakness. Like that's a sign of strength," said Evans.
Speaking of the ordeal, he added: "It sucked. But I am not going to let it stop me."
The book Mauled: Lessons Learned from a Grizzly Bear Attack details Evans' incredible journey from the life-changing hunting trip to his life today. Expressing how he can joke about it while stressing the importance of psychiatric help after a traumatic event, the story exhibits determination and resilience in abundance.
After the attack, the nine-year-old boy who was the first to see Evans as he searched for help was tasked with writing about his hero at school. He chose Evans, whom he heartwarmingly calls "Bear Dude" in a hand-written mini article.
"My hero is the bear dude," wrote the boy. "He inspires me because after the grizzly attack he walked with a shattered ankle. He crawled across rivers."
Mauled: Lessons Learned from a Grizzly Bear Attack by Jeremy Evans and Crosbie Cotton is available now at various retailers.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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