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Boise man is alive because he stayed calm during bear attack near Yellowstone

Paul Sellers of Boise was battered and bloodied by an encounter with a grizzly sow while he was hiking alone Tuesday in the Gallatin National Forest near West Yellowstone, Mont.

“Every part of his body hurts, but he’s lucky to be alive,” his wife, Miriam Sellers, told the Idaho Statesman on Thursday.

Sellers is recovering at a Rexburg hospital from injuries that including a broken arm, a punctured lung, a broken rib, a bite on the back of his head and abrasions. His wife said he stayed calm during the attack.

“After the bear left, he lay there for a few moments (and) found his arm behind his head – he thought it had been ripped off,” she said.

Sellers remembered seeing forest rangers at the trailhead. After the attack, he chose the correct trail and was able to get help. It took him more than two hours to walk out, his wife said.

Gallatin National Forest spokeswoman Marna Daley said Sellers, 35, surprised the grizzly and her cubs. He was equipped with bear repellent spray and a pistol, but the attack happened so quickly he wasn’t able to use them, Daley said.

The sow had just buried an elk carcass nearby, said Melissa Frost, a spokeswoman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Preliminary reports indicate the bear battered Sellers for a short time, then left – typical for a sow protecting her cubs, Frost said.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/story/799971.html