Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, suffered serious injuries when he was in the « wrong place at the wrong time » hiking up Signal Mountain in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park Sunday.
A disabled Army combat veteran miraculously survived when a mother grizzly bear protecting her cub mauled him in the Wyoming wilderness, calling the encounter the “most violent” thing he’s ever experienced.
Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, suffered serious injuries when he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” hiking up Signal Mountain in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park Sunday, he wrote on Instagram.
The wildlife photographer said he set out into the wilderness alone, telling his wife he’d meet back up with her in the park’s parking lot in one hour since he hoped to photograph a Great Grey Owl before they left.
He headed back about an hour into his solo journey and said a “really uncomfortable feeling” washed over him.
“I was breaking branches, singing and talking to myself aloud,” Burke recalled. These are some things that can help prevent a ‘surprise encounter’ with a brown bear.”
The Massachusetts native noticed a “brown bear cub running up a hill about 50-70 yards” while he trekked through the thick wooded area of the 310,000-acre park.
“I knew this wasn’t good,” Burke wrote.
All hell broke loose when he saw the mother bear charge directly at him.
