I was hanging in Algonquin Park (central Ontario) on the May 19th weekend. At the same time, this occurred further up in northwestern Ontario:
Outhouse bear attack survivor was grabbed from 'throne'
A Winnipeg man who was dragged out of an outhouse by a black bear is recovering at home with some cuts on his back and an amazing tale of survival.
Gord Shurvell, 65, was camping and fishing with a friend at a cabin by Dunbar Lake, about 60 kilometres north of Sioux Lookout, Ont., when the bear attacked him early Saturday.
Shurvell told CBC News he was in the outhouse, with the door wide open so he could enjoy the morning view, when the bear barged in.
"I'm sitting on the throne, and my feet are sort of up on the 'poopstool,' we call it," he said in an interview Wednesday.
"So I'm kicking at him to get away, but he grabbed my pants and that gotch that were down around my ankles. And that was the start of it, and he just kept coming."
When asked if the attack scared the "you-know-what" out of him, Shurvell replied, "It was already gone!"
"I'd already done my business," he added. "All the defence I had is a … piece of [toilet] paper in this hand."
Shurvell said the bear then dragged him by the arm through the bush, and he immediately went into survival mode.
"I know if he gets me back there and I pass out, my buddy won't know … it would take too long to find me. So I'm trying to get a tree to slow him down," he said.
Shurvell's friend, 63-year-old Daniel Alexander, said he was inside the cabin when he heard the commotion outside.
"I started out of the cabin and something clicked in, and I thought 'bear.' I turned around, went back into the cabin and got the gun," Alexander said.
"In the meantime, Gord is screaming, 'Danny, Danny, Danny! It's a bear!'"
Alexander said when he found Shurvell and the bear in the bush, he initially had a difficult time figuring out how to shoot the bear and not his friend.
"Just as I started to do that, the bear dropped Gordy and turned towards me," Alexander recalled.
"The bear was down on all fours, with his head was down. And as soon as he done that, that's when I shot him, right in the head. Thank God that that bear turned."
Shurvell escaped the attack with some scratches on his head, neck and arms, as well as a puncture in the back of his head.
Shurvell was treated in a Sioux Lookout hospital and released, and he returned to Winnipeg late Tuesday. On Wednesday, he received his third rabies treatment.
Shurvell said he is grateful for Alexander's quick action, as he believes that was the reason why he survived.
As for next time, Shurvell said he will use the outhouse without the view.
"I just left it open because it was a beautiful morning and I was sitting there, enjoying looking out there. You can imagine what those sh-thouses [can be] like," he said.
"I'll probably put up with the stench and shut the door."
You could modify these with a spike to mount in the ground and put 3 or 4 or them around your site to scare them off. Looks like 90-120 degree coverage each.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=789154
Then to REALLY scare the beejezuss out of bears, all other wildlife around, yourselves and the campers a mile away, got for this model with the strobe light.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=299506
You need to have the remote handy for both models, and keep the sensors in mind when you got for that midnight stumble into the trees to answer the call of nature.
However, if you forget, I think the siren and strobe light will probably cause you to answer that call right where you are standing!
Last edited by dkperdue; 06-08-2012 at 21:49.
DKPerdue
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.
Ronald Reagan, President of the United States
I wonder if sprinkling cayenne ( not sure about the spelling) pepper would deter the curiosity of bears?
I had read that rangers were warning campers about this:
Some people will spray the aerosol pepper sprays around their campsite because they think that the pepper spray is a repellent for bears.
Instead, it acts to attract bears as it adds a new smell to the area, so they go to check it out.
DKPerdue
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.
Ronald Reagan, President of the United States
Old time park rangers used to say that if you had not heard a rumor by ten in the morning, you were to start one. This story about bear mouthing may be a ten o'clock story.
"You'll never get a Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole." Capt. H. P. Crowe, USMC; Guadalcanal, 13 Jan 1943
'I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants." A. Whitney Brown
"Everything takes longer once a cat gets involved." sm
I was hanging in APP the weekend after that!
My hammock was set up maybe 100ft away from our fire where we cooked. It was actually closer to the food bag lol.
I can't imagine using those little motion sensing alarms in APP... it would never stop going off from all the squirrels and chipmunks!
Bookmarks