Armed with a wild will to live and a sharp knife, a bear hunter won in a death-defying battle with a grizzly.

And Fish and Wildlife officials investigating the Sunday incident southwest of Chain Lakes, near the Chimney Rock Road, said they found the carcass of a young female grizzly weighing several hundred pounds — which the hunter said he stabbed in the throat as it attacked him — in a remote area on Wednesday.

Brendan Cox, spokesman with the Solicitor General ministry which oversees Fish and Wildlife officers, said the hunter is licenced to hunt black bears.

And that is what he said he was looking for when he ended up in scary encounter — after mistaking a grizzly for a black bear.

“He spotted it about 100 yards away and fired at it, unfortunately, it turned out to be a grizzly,” Cox said.

“After waiting for about 20 minutes, he went to track it down and he surprised it.”

The hunter said the big bear knocked him down before leveraging an upper hand in the fight.

“He managed to get a knife free and stabbed (the bear) in the neck,” Cox said.

The man, who was bitten several times and suffered a crushed wrist, survived.

In fact, he somehow drove in a winter’s storm — a harrowing drive RCMP said took several hours — into Nanton.

Surprised Flying J staff saw the bloody hunter pull up saying he was trying to drive to the hospital.

“It’s not even in Nanton but in High River or Claresholm,” said shift leader Bev Sharratt, commending maintenance worker, Wayne, for acting quickly to help the hurt hunter while others offered to ferry him to hospital.

“He saw this guy bleeding all over the place and just called 911 and then looked after him, made sure he was bandaged up and stayed with him. He told us he was attacked by a bear and I think he was in shock. His arm was all torn up and he was bleeding quite badly.”

Sharratt said she is still surprised the hunter made the drive that snowy day and is shocked to learn he killed a grizzly.

“It’s nice to know he’s alright,” she said.

The hunter went by ambulance to the South Campus Hospital in Calgary but declined to comment given the incident is under investigation by officials.

“I just want to forget about it, forget it ever happened,” he said when reached by QMI Agency.

Cox urges anyone venturing in to grizzly territory to be prepared and armed with bear spray.

He, too, said the hunter was fortunate.

“Grizzlies are a powerful animal,” he said.

“It’s good to hear he wasn’t injured further and will (likely) be more careful in the future.”

Officials have not ruled out the hunter might face charges under the provincial wildlife act which, if the bear fatality proves to be something other than self-defence, could see him face a fine of up to $100,000 or two years in jail,

nadia.moharib@sunmedia.ca

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