He was enjoying his honeymoon. Then Mass. man got attacked by a grizzly bear. Here’s how he survived. - The Boston Globe (2024)

He turned his back to the grizzly bear and she pounced, driving him to the ground. Keeping his hands interlocked around his neck, he lay on his belly to protect himself. He tried to make himself small. As he writhed in pain and tried not to scream, the bear clamped its claws down and thrashed him, biting him repeatedly all over. He thought he was going to die, but through the fear felt grateful his wife and dog had turned back and were safe.

Burke had survived gunfire and mortar shell bombardments in Iraq. He survived brain surgery almost two years ago to remove a tumor, a diagnosis that prompted him to marry his longtime girlfriend, Chloe, 31. But neither were as traumatic, he said, as the May 19 attack.

“It’s going to mess me up for a while, mentally,” he said.

Only an hour or so earlier, the couple were walking along Signal Mountain Summit Road with their dog, Cadence, a sprightly 7-year-old Belgian Malinois.

An adventurous couple who love exploring the wilderness, they set out about three weeks ago on a delayed honeymoon, renting a van with the plan to camp and visit as many national parks and other sites as they could. The couple did extensive research in preparation, including how to avoid a bear attack — and how best to survive one.

They spent three days in the Badlands in South Dakota and another three at Yellowstone in Wyoming. On the seventh day of their trip, they decided to stop for a few hours at Grand Teton. Shayne Burke, who enjoys wildlife photography, had learned that great gray owls, a large but elusive bird, frequent Signal Mountain there.

They had walked less than a mile along Summit Road when Chloe Burke, an EMT and wilderness first responder, turned around with their dog and headed back to the parking lot because dogs aren’t allowed off the road. Her husband agreed to meet her within an hour.

Shayne Burke continued through the woods, at one point spotting around a dozen people riding mountain bikes. After about an hour, he decided to head back, knowing his wife would be getting worried.

With the wind howling, Burke was singing and making plenty of noise to let bears know he was coming. He was only a half-mile from the parking lot when the bear attacked.

After trying to act lifeless, Burke eventually cried out in agony, and the bear lunged.

But when the bear sunk its teeth into his right hand and wrist, it crunched down on the canister and got a mouthful of bear spray, causing the animal to run away.

He looked up to see the bear moving toward the parking lot. Covered in blood and seriously injured, Burke managed to run farther into the woods to get away. He doesn’t know how far he traveled or how he was able to, attributing it to adrenaline.

“When I started running away I was like, ‘Wow, man, you’ve escaped another death sentence somehow.’ And then I saw my hand and I was like, ‘Well if my hand looks like that, I don’t want to know what my backside looks like,’” said Burke, a civilian mechanic in the Army and a soldier in the Army Reserves.

He tried to call his wife but didn’t have service. He sent her a text with a single word: “attacked.” He climbed a hill where he finally got a cell signal.

“I wasn’t sure if I was dying,” he said. “I wanted to hear my wife’s voice one more time.”

Chloe Burke called 911 and rescuers began their search.

As they struggled to find him in the backcountry, Shayne Burke recorded a video of himself for his loved ones, saying, “If you’re seeing this, I might be dead. I love you,” he recalled.

Because he believed it would be a short hike, he was without some of the gear he normally brings with him — a radio, an off-the-grid satellite communicator with an SOS feature, and a first aid kit. But he had brought a knife and a bino harness, which he used to create tourniquets for his wounds.

As he lay on the ground, he blew his rescue whistle over and over, sometimes feeling that he was going to lose consciousness, and clutched his knife, his last line of defense.

Before long, he was able to help a dispatcher guide a helicopter to him. When he saw a ranger walking through the woods toward him, he felt a rush of relief.

“I don’t know how I’ll ever repay them,” he said.

He immediately begged officials not to kill the bear. After an investigation, officials agreed, saying the bear had “responded defensively because she had at least one cub.” Bear attacks in Grand Teton are extremely rare, with only a handful recorded in park history.

Burke said he waited until he was cleared of wrongdoing to describe the attack on social media, knowing some people would blame him for what happened. Still, he wanted to use his experience as a teaching moment.

“It was very validating when the bear biologist and the ranger I was working with both told me, ‘No, you’re really smart. You survived for a reason. You did everything right,’” he said.

He was lifted up to the helicopter and flown to a parking lot, where he was reunited with Chloe and taken by ambulance to a hospital in Jackson.

“Don’t cry. I’m OK,” he told Chloe. “We’re going to be OK. We’ll get through this.”

At the hospital, he received 60 staples and numerous stitches for his wounds. He was discharged after staying overnight.

After remaining in Jackson for a couple of nights, the couple made the long — and for him uncomfortable — drive back to Massachusetts, with a few pitstops along the way.

While their honeymoon was cut short, they have every intention of returning to Wyoming.

“We were actually looking into moving to Wyoming, and that’s still part of the possible plan,” Shayne Burke said.

Chloe feels guilty for not being there during the attack, he said. But he said he would have been unable to forgive himself if he had lost her or Cadence, who were by his side when his parents died four years ago.

“[Chloe] and I have been through a lot together, so we’ll be OK,” he said. “It’s just going to take some time.”

On Monday, he had his staples removed but will require further medical care. At some point during his struggle with the bear, his shoulder fractured, leaving him in intense pain.

He said he plans to discuss the attack in therapy. But through it all, Shayne Burke said he feels lucky.

“I think the mental thing will probably be ... I hope it’s not too turbulent,” he said. “But I don’t know what [the road ahead] really looks like. I’m a hunter. I’m going to go into the woods alone again. This is just a reality. It’s going to be hard.”

Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.