Teen bit in head by bear wakes up to "crunching sound"

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Teen bit in head by bear wakes up to "crunching sound"
[Associated Press]
Associated PressJuly 9, 2017
Teen bit in head by bear wakes up to "crunching sound"

FILE - In this April 22, 2012 file photo, a black bear grazes in a field in Calais, Vt. A black bear attacked a 19-year-old staffer at a Colorado camp as he slept early Sunday, July 9, 2017. Black bears aren’t usually aggressive but they recently attacked a woman in a popular hiking area in Idaho and killed two people in Alaska. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot/File)

WARD, Colo. (AP) -- A teen staffer at a Colorado camp fought off a bear after waking up Sunday to find the animal biting his head and trying to drag him away.

The 19-year-old woke up at around 4 a.m. to a "crunching sound" with his head inside the mouth of the bear, which was trying to pull him out of his sleeping bag as he slept outside at Glacier View Ranch 48 miles (77 kilometers) northwest of Denver, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. The teen punched and hit it and other staffers who were sleeping nearby yelled and swatted at the bear, which eventually left, she said.

The staffer, identified only as Dylan, was treated briefly at a hospital and released.

The teen told KMGH-TV that the bear dragged him ten to 12 feet before he was able to free himself.

"The crunching noise, I guess, was the teeth scraping against the skull as it dug in," said the teen, who teaches wilderness survival at the camp owned by the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.

Dylan and the other staffers were near teepees where 12- and 13-year-old campers were sleeping. None of them were hurt.