A B.C. hunter was attacked by a huge grizzly bear near Fernie in October and is now recovering at home in Cranbrook after spending a month at Foothills Hospital.
Wilf Lloyd, 55, was hunting elk on the Thanksgiving long weekend with his son-in-law.
They had shot at a bull on their first day out and were unable to find it as the light faded so had returned the next day to see if the elk was still in the area.
“We went back that next morning but we checked and we were pretty confident, from where we looked and the open trails, that there was no blood and so you just have to be responsible and any responsible hunter is going to go back and do that and make sure there is no wounded animal.”
Lloyd says they were making their way through some high brush when he came across the carcass of a white-tailed deer.
“I looked under a bush and there was a little white tail that had been dead for years,” said Lloyd. “I shouldered my gun and I knelt down to pick it up and as I knelt down to pick it up, I heard a noise below me, like a thud and I was just about to touch it and I looked up and the grizzly’s running at me, he’s full tilt, his eyes are locked right on me and I went to get up and I’m yelling at Skeet, bear, bear.”
Lloyd says the bear hit him in the chest and knocked him down and rolled him.
“The weight of his body was on my legs. His front paws were on my chest and he was pounding, he was up and down, pounding on me.”
He says the bear was trying to get at his throat and so he jammed his arm down into the bear’s mouth to protect himself. “As he’s clamping down and he’s just penetrating, Skeet shoots him.”
The bear released Lloyd’s hand as soon as it was shot but he soon realized he was also hit by the bullet.
“I felt the vibration of the bullet go through his body shaking on top of me and I’m still screaming at Skeet, you know, shoot him again, shoot him again, get him off me and I’m flailing around, like me legs are free but he’s laying on top of me and so I’m trying to kick him off and as I’m doing that, my leg lifts up to kick him, Skeet’s twenty feet away and looks through the rifle, he’s looking at the vital zone, my leg comes up into the vital zone and he shoots me in the leg,” said Lloyd.
It took several more shots to kill the bear and stop the attack.
Lloyd was flow to Foothills by STARS and has had five surgeries so far. He is back home now and is adjusting to life with his injuries.
“The man saved my life,” said Lloyd. “What Skeet did and because of his fast reaction, the shots, I had maybe fifty stitches in my hand and that’s it. So I was very fortunate that way.”
He says he is grateful to his hunting partner for saving him and that he showed an unbelievable amount of composure to do what he had to do to get the bear off him.
“We can’t believe the composure that that kid had to stay in the moment and save my life.”
He says he is also indebted to the many emergency responders who came to his rescue after the attack and throughout his recovery.
“I couldn’t have had a better team and better support than what is in Calgary.”
Lloyd say the conservation officer told him that they estimate the bear was between 10 and 12 years old and weighed about 450 to 500 pounds.
He says he now has two pins in his leg and will be sidelined in his recliner at home for between two and six months.
After that, doctors will considering fusing a rod from his ankle to his hip to give him back his mobility.
They are also looking at the possibility of putting in a prosthetic.
He says the support from the community has been unbelievable and people have stepped up to cook meals, chop firewood and shovel the walks.
“It’s amazing what people have done.”
He says hunting is part of his nature and that he will return to the outdoors once he is back on his feet.
Friends and family have started an online campaign to help the Lloyds with medical bills and other expenses, click HERE for more information.
