Mauled: Life’s Lessons Learned from a Grizzly Bear Attack

In August 2017, 32-year-old Jeremy Evans endured multiple ferocious attacks by a protective female grizzly bear while hunting in the Alberta wilderness.

Jeremy’s injuries were massive, his scalp and face destroyed, an eye and his jaw dangling down. The tendons on one leg had been fully severed during the mauling. His hands were damaged where he had physically fought the bear. It was more than a dozen kilometres to where he had parked his truck in darkness early that morning and absolutely no one was near. Thoughts of his wife and their eight-month-old daughter consumed Jeremy as he stumbled and crawled for hours back to his truck, before driving himself several kilometres to a backcountry lodge for help. All the while, Jeremy thought of his young family and the upcoming sixth wedding anniversary that he feared he might never be able to celebrate.

Mauled carefully details what happened deep in an Alberta forest where few modern humans tread. Jeremy’s miraculous recovery and life lessons learned when so close to death show that human determination can defy the greatest of odds, and that setting small goals along the road to recovery can lead to remarkable achievements. Despite the traumatic stress the encounter produced, Jeremy holds no animosity toward the bear and still enjoys spending time in the backcountry. To him the grizzly was doing what the best parents do: protect their young.