A Saskatchewan man who survived a black bear attack earlier this month says the attack happened fast but the fight lasted about 20 minutes.

“It happened so quick. They’re fast. Within less than a second she had me,” Jeff Haydukewich said from his room at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon on Friday.

Haydukewich was archery hunting elk in a tree stand on Sept. 4 near Weirdale, about 50 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert, when a mother bear and her three cubs wandered onto the private property. The avid hunter has encountered bears before and said they’ve ran off when he’s shouted at them in the past.

He didn’t provoke the bear, he said. He managed to snap a photo of the bear family minutes before the attack. When the mother came close to the tree, he began yelling to scare her off. Instead, the bear aggressively climbed up the tree, grabbed him by the arm and threw him to the ground where she mauled him, according to Haydukewich. He climbed up the tree two more times and the bear followed him.

“She came up and she bit my foot,” he said. “She had a hold of my foot to a branch that I was standing on and I was kicking her with my right leg yelling and screaming at her telling her, ‘This isn’t how I’m going! You ain’t getting’ me!’”

Eventually, Haydukewich attacked her with a compound bow by driving it into her neck and then her mouth.

“She was like 29 inches away from me and I drove an arrow right into her,” he said. “Right into her throat area and she went down and she circled the tree stand three times…. There was lots of (bear) blood they said.”

He recalled the bear pulling the arrow out and constantly snapping her jaw and growling while he yelled at her to go away.

Thoughts of his children kept him going

Haydukewich was able to walk to his truck, although he doesn’t remember how long it took. The thought of his seven children kept him going when he felt weak.

“I thought I needed a break. I was like, ‘Ahhh, just take a little break,’ then I thought to myself, ‘No, if I stop, this is where I’m going to lay, so I just kept on keeping on,” he said.

He drove to his brother’s house where they called for help, which was about an hour after Haydukewich took a photo of the bears. He was taken to hospital where he and his wife Marita Doerksen have remained since. The couple lives in Whitefox, but Doerksen hasn’t left his side.

A bulletin board with photos of his children hangs directly across from his hospital bed. The wall is lined with drawings from his children and cards from friends and family. A cousin sent a basket with a stuffed animal black bear that sits near his bed.

Severe injuries

Haydukewich was mauled and bitten and large parts of his skin were hanging off. His injuries are so bad hospital staff keep him blindfolded when they change the dressing on his arm and leg. They only describe the sight to him saying he’s been traumatized enough.

“There's no skin from like here to here,” he explained pointing at his arm. “It’s just muscle and tendons. You can see all my tendons.”

Haydukewich said he’ll only look at photos of those injures after he’s completely healed. There is a large piece of skin missing from his leg, his chest was stitched up, and he has bite marks on his leg and abrasions to his head.

He said he only remembers being scared once throughout the ordeal — when he was walking to his truck and kept looking behind him to see if the bear was there. He wasn’t afraid of bears before the incident and still isn’t, he said.

Efforts to find bear

Conservation officers say it’s likely the bear is injured. They’ve set up traps and cameras in hopes of catching her.

“They’ll keep trying. We’ll leave the traps up here for a bit,” conservation officer Rich Hildebrand said Friday. The bears “will be starting to look at hibernating pretty soon. They have checked the area and so far no activity.”

He added while there have been a handful of similar incidents in the past, a bear attacking a human is quite rare.

Staying optimistic

Doctors haven’t given Haydukewich a date for release from hospital, but he’s staying optimistic. He’s expected to be able to walk after intense physiotherapy, but he's not sure he'll be able to continue working as a welder. At this point he doesn’t have full range of motion in his wrist and skin grafts may leave his skin too sensitive, Doerksen explained.

“That’s our big thing,” she said. “He may have to find a new line of work.”

“I’ll bounce back!” Haydukewich responded, saying it’s important to stay positive.

He said, while he’ll likely never bow hunt again, he was hoping to be out hunting again this fall. Doctors said he likely won’t be well by then, so he’s now looking forward to ice fishing with his wife this winter.