You might describe Kendall Cummings, a college wrestler, as a hero. You should! He wrestled with a grizzly bear to save the life of his friend; a fellow college wrestler, Brady Lowry, who had been attacked by the grizzly.
Both of them are students at Northwest College in Cody, Wyoming. They were searching for antlers shed by elk and deer in Shoshone National Forest. They were with other friends and colleagues from the college but were separated from them at the time of the attack.
Cummings’ friend, Brady Lowry, of Cedar City in Utah, was surprised by a bear who attacked him. He suffered a broken arm. He curled up into a ball to try and survive.
Cummings was nearby and he had a choice. He could run or stay and fight the bear. He decided to stay because he “didn’t want to lose my friend. It was bad”.
Cummings tried to get the bear off Lowry by yelling and throwing objects at it. He shouted at the animal. He kicked it and hit it and pulled its fur. In the end he tried to physically pull the bear off Lowry and grabbed it by an ear.
Lowry said that they would do anything for each other. They were like brothers. And everything happened so fast.
He said in an interview with Deseret News:
“There was a big ol’ bear on top of him. I could have run and potentially lost a friend or get him off and save him.”
The bear quickly turned to attack Cummings.
He said in an interview with KSL-TV:
“It tackled me. Chewed me up a bit, and then when it was done it wandered off, and I started calling out for Brady to make sure he was all right.”
Once the bear wandered off a dazed Mr Cummins gathered his strength and began to look for his teammates. Larry called the emergency services at the same time.
Teammates, August Harrison of Vernal, Utah and Orrin Jackson of Kersey, Colorado, joined Cummings and Lowry to help them off the mountain.
Lowry was able to walk by himself. They were taken to Billings Clinic Hospital where Cummings had surgery.
The picture on this page is excellent. It is published on the Cowboy State Daily. I don’t see a credit for the photographer, but it might be the reporter, Leo Wolfson. Great work.
The picture clearly shows the injuries. Cummings face was badly injured, and you can see the stitches and wounds. As you can see that Lowry’s lower arm is in a cast.
Both men are expected to make a full recovery. There’ll be some scars though.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials said that they would not try and capture the bear concerned or kill it as it was a surprise attack, and it would be difficult to pick out the animal responsible.
Lowry said:
“I can’t express how grateful I am for him. I don’t know what I’m going [to do] to pay him back, I don’t. I owe him everything.”
Before they were attacked by the bear, they had managed to collect five or six antlers. They had seen a lot of bear scats but no bear. Lowry suggested that they should have turned around and disappeared because where there are scats, there are bears.
Black bear strolls down busy street in Whistler looking for ice cream
