Two college wrestlers suffered injuries during a grizzly bear attack at a Wyoming national forest on Saturday.
Brady Lowry and Kendell Cummings, wrestling teammates from Northwest College in Cody, Wyo., helped each other survive two surprise attacks from a bear at Shoshone National Forest. They were looking for fallen antlers with two more of their teammates when a bear attacked them.
Lowry was attacked first, suffering from a broken arm and puncture wounds. Cummings came over to help his friend by yelling, kicking and hitting the bear, along with pulling on its fur to get it to stop attacking Lowry.
“I didn’t want to lose my friend,” Cummings said, via Deseret News. “It was bad. There was a big ol’ bear on top of him. I could have run and potentially lost a friend or get him off and save him.”
“The only thing I could yell is: ‘Bear! Bear!’” Lowry said in an interview with Good Morning America. “I just knew I had to protect my head and just kind of fight for life, you know—it’s life or death.”
After Cummings got the bear off of Lowry, the bear then attacked him.
“It knocked me onto the ground and then, with its head, pushed me on the ground all the way up against the trees and then kind of pinned me up there and it was attacking me,” Cummings said, via ABC News. “I was putting my hands in its mouth and stuff, so it wouldn’t be chewing on my neck and everything.”
The bear left, but then returned to the teammates after a brief time, and once again attacked Cummings.
After the pair escaped, Lowry found cell service and called 911. They reunited with their other teammates, got down the mountain and were taken to a local hospital. Cummings underwent surgery to mend his injuries.
The two teammates were no longer listed as patients at the hospital as of Tuesday, hospital spokesperson Zach Benoit told The Associated Press.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department told ABC said that it “is in the process of gathering further details” and “the investigation into the incident is ongoing.”
“Based on the initial information, this appears to be a sudden, surprise encounter with a grizzly bear,” the agency said, per ABC. “In the last few weeks, there has been an abundance of bear activity at low elevations throughout the South Fork and North Fork of the Shoshone River, Clarks Fork River and Greybull River drainages. Game and Fish encourages anyone recreating in these areas to use caution and be bear aware.”
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