---
title: "Grizzly Victim’s First Thought? “Oh, S—t!”"
date: "2007-06-15"
modified: "2007-06-15"
authors:
  - name: "Outdoor Life Online Editor"
    link: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/authors/outdoor-life-online-editor/"
url: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/newshound/2007/06/grizzly-victims-first-thought-oh-s-t/"
categories:
  - "Animal Attacks"
  - "Survival"
---

# Grizzly Victim’s First Thought? “Oh, S—t!”

![](<https://www.outdoorlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/22/UZVFWBZ2J2NK52A7GPY3S5U74Y.jpg>)

A Wyoming science and PE teacher is recovering from grizzly bear-inflicted cuts and puncture wounds he received yesterday when he unwittingly surprised a sow and her three cubs on a fresh elk kill near a commercial lodge in Grand Teton National Park.

Dennis VanDenbos, 54, told a reporter for [the Casper Star-Tribune](<https://www.trib.com/articles/2007/06/14/news/top_story/572cd331ce6281a1872572fa0002401f.txt/>) the first thing that crossed his mind when the grizzly turned to charge him was probably similar to how many News Hound readers might have reacted.

“Oh s—t!!” he thought.[![Griz](<https://outdoorlife.blogs.com/newshound/images/2007/06/14/griz.jpg>)](<https://outdoorlife.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/14/griz.jpg>)

VanDenbos, who was attending an education conference at Jackson Lake Lodge, said he was walking just yards from some cabins when the attack occurred.

“I thought, ‘This is bad,’ so I just dove off to my right off the road and into the ditch and started my play-dead routine,” he said.

He told reporter Whitney Royster that he remained prone, but did not cover his head with his hands as is recommended during a grizzly attack. The bear approached him and began biting his back and buttocks repeatedly.

“I just sensed it as kind of a threatened thing,” VanDenbos said. “She bit my back and kind of shook it a little. Pain is not something that occurred to me.”

Then the bruin forcefully “grabbed and shook” his backside.

“After the third bite (to my buttocks) I had this thought that maybe she was thinking of breakfast for her and her cubs,” he said. “I was a little worried.”

Fortunately, about that time a wrangler and some others from the nearby corrals responded to the ruckus and chased the bears away.

It was the first grizzly attack on a human in the park since 2001.

For now, VanDenbos said he feels very lucky--and very sore.

“The only problem will be sitting,” he admitted.