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Grizzly bear attacks man hunting elk near Livingston

Posted at 12:11 PM, Oct 14, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-14 21:08:01-04

LIVINGSTON – A man bow hunting near Livingston was attacked by a grizzly bear on Saturday and is recovering in the hospital in Bozeman.

In a Facebook post, Bob Legasa said he and his hunting partner were approaching some elk when they surprised a sow grizzly and her cub about 12 yards away.

“Due to the closeness (12 yards) I did not have time to react besides getting into a defensive mode/stance,” Legasa said on Facebook. “And before I could even reach for my bear spray she was at full charge.”

Legasa said as the grizzly attacked him, his hunting partner was able to retrieve his bear spray and hit the sow with one shot that initially stopped her.

The grizzly then reared up and came back towards Legasa’s partner as he hit her with another blast, causing the sow and her cub to retreat.

“My arm is broken in two spots where she grabbed on with her mouth and I have a nice couple of scratches on my face where she got me with her claws,” Legasa said of his injuries.

He initially received emergency room treatment in Livingston before being transferred to Bozeman for surgery.

“Because of the bear bite and fractured bones they were afraid of infection so they put me in an ambulance and sent me to Bozeman where they needed to do surgery to clean out the wound,” said Legasa.

At the end of his post describing the encounter, Legasa gave high praise to the medical staff treating him, as well as his hunting partner:

Huge shout out for my hunting partner Greg…his quick response was able to minimize the damage and severity of this attack….Huge shout out to the Livingston ER room and the Bozeman hospital and surgeons, nurses, etc.

MTN News is in contact with Legasa, who remains in the hospital recovering. We will update this story as we get more information.