Alaska Man Survives Bear Attack By Talking To It
SEATTLE - An Alaska man knows he is lucky to be alive after surviving a bear attack.
The man was hunting on an island near Juneau when he came upon a mother bear and her cub. But he found that talking to the bear may have saved his life. Ken Horton has to hold a towel to his mouth when he talks, as the coastal grizzly bear ripped away the muscles on that side of his face. "In half a heartbeat, she was on me," Horton said. "First slap of her paw she tore my face off -- it was hanging down by my neck." Horton was hunting deer in rugged terrain when he suddenly encountered a mother bear and her cub. "I've never seen an animal move that fast in my life... she was fast just blinding speed," he said. "When I saw her coming at me I thought this is it, I'm dead," he continued. Horton says he rolled on his stomach and used his hands to protect his neck. "She just started chewing on my head like a dog bone and growling. She was just furious with me for being in her area," he said. "I was just telling her, 'OK... OK... OK... I'm not going to get your baby.' " Horton thinks the bear understood and left him. He then made a frantic call to the Coast Guard. "I feel bad... half my heads been torn off... you gotta come get me," Horton said frantically on the phone to the Coast Guard. To which they replied: "We're going to come out there and get you." A sightseeing helicopter was closer, and picked Horton up on the beach. "When I heard the helicopter come I went out on the beach and flagged em down and it was just like a angel coming for me," Horton said. Horton says he'll be back hunting and fishing, but plans to take a bigger gun and a hunting partner. He doesn't blame the bear, but his girlfriend gave him a stuffed one as a special reminder of his too close encounter. Horton was evacuated to Harborview because the trauma center could best repair his wounds. He will be coming back to Harborview in January for some reconstructive surgery on his left cheek.
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