Bearly a scratch.
A Utah construction worker managed to survive an encounter with a massive black bear that ambushed him at a popular campsite, as reported.
Nate Peterson, 43, was on a four-person team working in a cabin in Bryce Woodlands, Utah, when a 300-pound bear suddenly pinned him on a cot, according to KTSU.
“Crazy bear. I was just sitting there doing nothing,” Peterson said from his room at Sevier Valley Hospital. “But this son of a bitch just wouldn’t stop coming after us.”
“Bear walked up and hit the side of my bed. Then he came over and jumped on my bed… And then he jumped down and bit my arm and I went to screaming and threw him off and started throwing stuff at him,” Peterson recounted.
“It’s a whole other experience. It’s nothing like getting bit by a dog or getting sewn off of a horse or anything.”
The 43-year-old said the bear was undeterred by the desperate defensive measures and proceeded to stalk the construction worker — who said he’s had encounters with docile black bears before.
“Three times,” Peterson said. “They just walked up, looked and turned around and walked off. Usually they get a whiff of you and they leave.”
Peterson escaped the would-be maneater and called his wife on the way to the hospital, he told the outlet.
“I thought he was joking,” Anna Peterson told the outlet, adding that she then rushed to meet him at the hospital.
Wildlife officials tracked down the belligerent bear and euthanized him on Wednesday, according to the report.
The grizzled survivor offered one piece of advice to those taking on a bear: “Don’t give up. Just fight.”
