Random People Who Survived Wild Animal Attacks Tell Their Stories (12 items)

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  (#2) An Alaskan Hunter Was Attacked By A Kodiak Bear

  In 1999, 69-year-old Alaskan hunter Gene Moe was attacked by a Kodiak brown bear, one of the largest bears in the world. Moe was in the process of skinning a deer when the bear charged him. Too far from his rifle, Moe stood his ground with the only weapon on him: a four-inch Buck knife. He made a split-second decision to shove his knife down the bear's throat. After the bear clamped down on his arm, here's how the fight went:

  It’s like a dog when he bites down, he grabs and twists... I didn't want to look at my arm. I thought it was gone. I had watched a lot of bears when I first came to Alaska. I noticed early on they were mostly right-pawed, like people. I saw that paw coming, and I was ready for it! I stepped back, and he kinda got me across the face and sliced (my) ear in two.

  The fight didn't end there. The animal charged Moe several more times, taking a chunk out of his leg in the process. When the bear charged Moe one final time, he threw a punch straight to its snout, knocking the bear out and breaking his knuckle in the process. Moe then staggered two miles to find the rest of his hunting party, who immediately called in rescue personnel to take him to the closest hospital.
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  (#3) A 70-Year-Old Fought Off A Mountain Lion In California

  Jim Hamm and his wife Nell were 70 and 66, respectively, when a cougar jumped out at them while they were hiking through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in California. It flew out of the trees and landed on the trail in front of them. Jim described what happened as the big cat turned to leap at him again: "That's when I realized I was going to have to fight this thing. I figured I would fight it like I would fight a dog attacking me."

  The animal latched onto his arm, and as he was about to hit it with his free hand, the mountain lion knocked him over and bit off a piece of his scalp. "It was like somebody hit me with a baseball bat. I was dazed. Then I heard my wife yelling for me to fight."

  According to Nell, the cougar made "a desperate, horrible sound like something I've never heard before." She turned and saw her husband on the ground, his head inside the mouth of a wild animal. After picking up a tree limb and striking the mountain lion, Nell said "[it] didn't even flinch, so all I could do was keep hitting and hitting and telling him, 'Fight, Jim, fight.' It was horrible. You can't imagine the horror of such a thing."

  The lion eventually left on its own. Jim and Nell now share their story with other hikers to stress safety and the importance of awareness while on the trail.
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  (#7) A Kenyan Farmer Bit A Python That Dragged Him Up A Tree

  Ben Nyaumbe is a farmer from Kenya. He was out one day, tending livestock when this happened:

  I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground, and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python. It waggled its ragged and scary tail on my mouth. I had to bite it as I struggled, one hand incapacitated.

  The snake was able to drag Nyaumbe up a tree. When the snake eased it's grip just enough, Nyaumbe took out his cell phone and called for help. Eventually, rescuers arrived, and both Nyaumbe and the snake "came down, landing with a thud." He was a bit bruised but otherwise okay. The snake, however, later escaped. 
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  (#8) A Hunting Guide Was Mauled By A Polar Bear In Canada

  Kootoo Shaw is an experienced hunting guide from Nunavut, Canada. He came face to face with a polar bear when it entered his campsite at four in the morning. Not many people face a polar bear and survive, but Shaw did. He said this about the attack:

  I thought I was going to die; I thought I was going to be gone. He had his claws under my neck for a while, I could hear his breathing, then he let his claws off, and he was still jumping on top me, up and down four times.

  It took 300 stitches to reattach Shaw's scalp, but he was able to recover from the attack, which also included bites and scratches to his back and arms.
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  (#9) A Zimbabwean Man Was Gored By A Buffalo On His Own Farm

  In early 2018, villagers in Dete, Zimbabwe, were having trouble with buffalo encroaching on their lands. The wild buffalo were starting to mix in with their cattle herds, leaving farmers with the dangerous task of chasing off the violent animals. Thabani Dube can attest to that danger firsthand after trying to remove a buffalo from his herd:

  When I was grazing cattle, a buffalo came and mixed with my herd. It became difficult to separate it, as it was following cows on heat. As I arrived home on the evening, it also got into the [herd]. It charged and gored my bull, and I was forced to set dogs on it. It became angry and charged at me. I am lucky to be alive because I ran towards a trench and it failed to cross it, but it gored me on the upper shoulder.
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  (#1) An Australian Diver Was Nearly Swallowed By A Great White Shark

  Australian diver Eric Nerhus was nearly swallowed by a 10-foot great white shark while gathering shellfish with his son and some other divers. The shark tried to eat him headfirst, and Nerhus estimates that he spent about two minutes in the shark's mouth. He had this to say during an interview with Australia's Nine Network:

  Half my body was in its mouth. I felt down to the eye socket with my two fingers and poked them into the socket. The shark reacted by opening its mouth, and I just tried to wriggle out. It was still trying to bite me... The big round black eye, 5 inches wide, was staring straight into my face with just not one hint of fear, of any boat, or any human, or any other animal in the sea.

  In the end, a lead-lined vest meant to weigh him down was the only thing that stopped the shark from biting him completely in half. Nerhus was transported to a hospital with severe cuts all over his head and upper body.

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