Bear mauls Vermonter living in Idaho
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A sign warning neighbors of a grizzly bear attack is posted near a group of mailboxes on Rammell Mountain Road in Tetonia, Idaho. |
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By ROCKY BARKER Idaho Statesman - Published: April 14, 2007
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Vermont native Timothy Henderson lay on the ground rolled up in a ball, bloodied from two brutal attacks by a grizzly bear Tuesday evening.
The bear had returned once when he got up, and he knew it was still nearby. But his thoughts turned inside the cabin 50 feet away, where his wife, Jenny, and 1-year-old son, Henry, were holed up.
Henderson, 33, who comes from Bristol in Addison County and is a graduate of Mt. Abraham Union High School, was alone when the bear attacked.
"I was scared I wouldn't get to see these guys again," Henderson said Friday morning, looking toward his wife and child.
"You're not going to get away from us that easy," his wife Jenny said, giving him a hug.
Three days after the bear charged him outside his home east of Tetonia on the Wyoming border, Henderson was discharged from Eastern Idaho Medical Center.
A hat covers extensive wounds on his head, including grooves in his skull from the bear's teeth.
He also has extensive wounds deep into his muscles, starting at his shoulder and running down his back to his buttocks. But he can walk and hold his son in his arms.
The carpenter and his wife spoke with the Idaho Statesman on Friday.
The couple has lived on the west slope of the Teton Mountains for more than a decade and has had past experiences with bears. The cabin, where they have lived for three years, lies on the edge of Bull Elk Canyon, a well-known grizzly bear hangout.
Henderson wasn't thinking about bears when his Great Pyrenees dog, Ladybug, started barking at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Earlier, the large white dog had come home stinking of something dead it had rolled in, he said.
Henderson didn't know there was a moose carcass about 50 yards behind his cabin. He walked out looking for the dog in the dying light of dusk.
He could hear Ladybug running toward him at a faster pace than usual but he couldn't see her until she crossed out of a patch of snow 50 feet away. Then he saw the bear, which he estimates at about 350 pounds, cross the snow patch at a full charge right behind her.
Henderson knew from experience he should stand his ground in the event of a false charge.
"I panicked," Henderson said. "I turned and got about two steps before the bear toppled me."
The bear grabbed Henderson's head in its mouth and started shaking him like a rag doll. Henderson rolled into a ball and covered his neck and crotch with his hands.
The bear bit and shook him for what seemed 10 minutes before it walked away.
"I got up," Henderson said. "That's when I heard him charging again."
Henderson again dropped into a ball on the ground. The bear bit him again and "flopped me around a little bit," he said.
The bear then disappeared into the woods, and Henderson wasn't taking any chances of drawing its attention again. He lay still for several minutes as Ladybug continued barking.
Finally, after what seemed like a long time, he began to crawl back toward the house. Ladybug walked slowly beside him barking.
"She was distracting, trying to keep the bear away," Henderson said.
He crawled to the back door and stood up. It had been only 15 minutes.
Jenny heard the dog barking close to the house. "I opened the door, and he was standing right there," she said.
She brought her husband inside and called 911. The ambulance arrived 15 minutes later at their isolated cabin, and he eventually was flown by helicopter to Eastern Idaho Medical Center in Idaho Falls.
Since then, Idaho Department of Fish and Game wardens and Teton County Sheriff's deputies have been setting traps, baited with deer found dead along the road, around the couple's home. The bear came back Wednesday night but escaped.
It didn't show up Thursday night, and officials said they would keep the traps around Henderson's cabin for at least another night.
The Hendersons won't return home until the trapping is done, they said.
They have mixed feelings about the bear and the trapping operation. Timothy Henderson would prefer that authorities relocate the bear someplace where it won't threaten other people. And Jenny is concerned that putting out bait by the family's home might attract other bears.
In the end, Henderson said, he trusts Fish and Game officials to make the right decision.
Despite the brutality of the attack, Henderson doesn't think the bear was trying to kill him, although it certainly could have, he said. It was just acting territorial around the moose carcass.
"I really didn't feel it was the bear's fault," Henderson said. "I stumbled into his area."
The Rutland Herald contributed to this story.
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