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 Chase Dellwo, 26, was hunting with a crossbow for elk with his
brother in the rugged foothills of the Rocky Mountains in
northwestern Montana on Saturday morning when he surprised a
400-pound (180-kg) male grizzly lumbering along a creek, said
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Bruce Auchly.
"It was startled, he was startled; the bear engaged in a defensive
attack," he said on Monday.
Dellwo later told wardens he crammed his arm crosswise into the back
of the grizzly's jaws because he had read an article that said large
animals have pronounced gag responses.
 Wildlife managers were not acquainted with the literature or
purportedly excessive gag reflexes among the massive,
hump-shouldered bruins, but Dellwo's action prompted the bear to
break off its attack and lumber away, Auchly said.
Wardens do not intend to capture the bear or kill it since it
engaged in a defensive, rather than predatory, attack.
"If the grizzly wanted to kill him, it would have killed him," said
Auchly.
Dellwo, of Bellgrade, Montana, was driven by his brother to a nearby
clinic before being taken to a hospital in Great Falls where he
remained on Monday for treatment of injuries that include cuts to
his head and face, his wife Rebecca told Reuters.
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Wildlife managers advise carrying bear spray to ward off attacks.
Dellwo was not equipped with bear spray when he encountered a
grizzly that is among the estimated 1,000 that roam along the
northern Continental Divide in Montana.
Just five populations of the federally protected bears are found in
the Lower 48 states, including the more than 750 grizzlies in and
around Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho; Editing by Curtis
Skinner and Eric Walsh)
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