The Idaho hunter who was attacked and bitten by a grizzly bear last week is now recounting the harrowing encounter, saying it “was like playing tug of war with your dog, but he was playing it with my arm and ripping it apart.”
Riley Hill made the comment as doctors are now estimating it will take him two months to recover following the attack inside the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near Island Park on Sunday, Sept. 1, according to East Idaho News.
Hill and his friend Braxton Meyers were archery hunting for elk when the bear lunged at him. An investigation of the attack revealed that the “hunters acted in self-defense during a surprise encounter with the bear from a very close distance,” Idaho Fish and Game officials said.
Hill told East Idaho News that the incident began with a “loud thud” and that he heard Meyers yell “Oh crap, that’s a bear!”
The 20-year-old then reportedly dropped his bow and using a handgun, managed to fire off four shots at the bear before it sank its teeth into his arm and started flinging him around.
Meyers, using his own firearm, then started to shoot at the bear.
