That bear attack scene from The Revenant was pretty grisly, but it was fake and Leonardo DiCaprio got to sip a matcha green tea smoothie after filming his CGI bear assault. For Todd Orr, there was no CGI bear, only a real, hulking and dangerous beast that wanted to kill him. Todd was attacked not once by a ferocious mother bear, but twice and somehow managed to live to tell his story… on Facebook. The 50-year-old shared graphic video and photos after he was mauled by a grizzly bear in Montana.
Todd, a knifemaker, was hiking near Ennis, Montana and knew he was in bear country so he shouted “Hey bear” every 30 seconds to signal himself and avoid surprising any bears. During his hike in Madison Valley, he spotted the mama bear and her cubs on the trail in an open meadow about 80 yards away. Thinking Todd was a threat to her young, the mama bear charged at him.
“Within a couple seconds, she was nearly on me,” Todd wrote on Facebook. “I gave her a full charge of bear spray at about 25 feet. Her momentum carried her right through the orange mist and on me.”
Todd details the horrific mauling.
I went to my face in the dirt and wrapped my arms around the back of my neck for protection. She was on top of me biting my arms, shoulders, and backpack. The force of each bite was like a sledgehammer with teeth. She would stop for a few seconds and then bite again. Over and over. After a couple minutes, but what seemed an eternity, she disappeared.
With no time to dress his wounds, Todd started his walk back down the trail to get help. However, only five or ten minutes into his escape the bear found him and was only 30 feet away.
“She was instantly on me again,” the man said. “I couldn’t believe this was happening a second time! Why me? I was so lucky the first attack, but now I questioned if I would survive the second.”
Again I protected the back of my neck with my arms, and kept tight against the ground to protect my face and eyes. She slammed down on top of me and bit my shoulder and arms again. One bite on my forearm went through to the bone and I heard a crunch. My hand instantly went numb and wrist and fingers were limp and unusable. The sudden pain made me flinch and gasp for breath. The sound triggered a frenzy of bites to my shoulder and upper back. I knew I couldn’t move or make a sound again so I huddled motionless. Another couple bites to my head and a gash opened above my ear, nearly scalping me. The blood gushed over my face and into my eyes. I didn’t move. I thought this was the end. She would eventually hit an artery in my neck and I would bleed out in the trail… But I knew that moving would trigger more bites so a laid motionless hoping it would end.
Finally, the savage attack was over.
She suddenly stopped and just stood on top of me. I will never forget that brief moment. Dead silence except for the sound of her heavy breathing and sniffing. I could feel and her breath on the back of my neck, just inches away. I could feel her front claws digging into my lower back below my backpack where she stood. I could smell the terrible pungent odor she emitted. For thirty seconds she stood there crushing me. My chest was smashed into the ground and forehead in the dirt. When would the next onslaught of biting began. I didn’t move.
Todd knew that a third attack would kill him so he looked for his pistol that he was unable to get to earlier, but it was on the ground about five feet away. Orr’s backpack saved his back from suffering even more gruesome injuries.
Todd began walking down the trail again, blood was pouring off his head and his shirt was soaked with his own blood. Todd had a 45-minute jog to his truck.
Thankfully, Todd found help.
At the trailhead was one other vehicle. I really hoped that person didn’t run into the same bear. I snapped a couple quick photos and a video of my wounds, laid some jackets over the truck seat and headed for town. I stopped a rancher along the way and asked him to make a call to the hospital. When I got into cell service, I made a quick call to my girlfriend to ask how her morning was going, before freaking her out and asking her to bring me a change of clean clothes to the hospital.
X-rays showed that the bear attack took a chip out of the ulna bone in his forearm. Orr suffered punctures in his arm and shoulder punctures, plus one nasty 5-inch gash along the side of my head.
“Not my best day, but I’m alive,” Orr said.
Orr shared graphic video and pics of his absolutely traumatic ordeal.
Todd Orr is incredibly lucky to be able to share his harrowing story.
[KTVQ]