A Canadian cyclist has narrowly escaped the jaws of a grizzly bear after stabbing it in the neck with a pocket knife gifted to him by his father.
Colin Dowler, 45, was mountain biking through British Columbia's remote backcountry on July 29 when he rounded a corner and inadvertently found himself in the animal's path.
After attempts to avoid the bear failed, Mr Dowler dismounted his bike and used it as a barrier, before grabbing a hiking pole from his backpack.
"He was getting really close to me, so I sort of poked it on his head [with the pole]," Mr Dowler told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Despite his best efforts to ward off the grizzly, things quickly turned from bad to worse.
Provoked by the light jab, the bear began to edge closer while swatting at him, before grabbing him by the abdomen.
"It got me by the stomach and kind of pushed me down and dragged me towards a ditch, maybe 50 feet [15 metres]," he told the CBC.
"I tried eye-gouging it away, but it didn't really work.
"It was mostly chewing on [my] thigh and I was trying to peel it's lips back, it's mouth back, and it bit me on the arm and bit my foot."
As the bear's grip tightened around his body, Mr Dowler remembered he had packed a knife in his right pants pocket, gifted to him by his father just two weeks prior.
"I used both hands to pull underneath the bear to get to that knife, put it in [my] hand and stabbed the bear in the neck," he told the broadcaster.
"It let go of me immediately and was bleeding quite badly."
Despite sustaining serious lacerations to his arms, legs and torso, Mr Dowler managed to crawl back to his bike and cycle some 7 kilometres to a nearby logging camp, where he collapsed.
His luck finally turned when he was spotted by a group of workers at the site — all of whom knew first aid — who called for an air ambulance.
"They just went to work, doing their best to save my life," he told the BBC.
"They're truly the heroes of the story because there's no way I would have made it without [them]."
Provincial conservation officers ultimately tracked and euthanased the bear that attacked Mr Dowler, who is now recovering in a Vancouver hospital, the BBC reported.
British Columbia is renowned for its bear population, with up to 15,000 grizzlies believed to reside in the province.
