A Navy veteran and businessman is in critical but stable condition following a bear attack Friday in Montana in which the bear tore off the man’s lower jaw, his family said Sunday.
Rudy Noorlander, 61, was helping a hunting party find a deer when the attack occurred, his daughter KateLynn Davis said in a statement. The hunting party had rented all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) from Noorlander’s snowmobiling and ATV rental business, Alpine Adventures, in Big Sky, for the hunt.
Noorlander encountered a bear and instinctively drew his firearm to scare it away “but before he could even have time to react, a different 10-foot tall and far more aggressive bear was on him,” Davis said in a GoFundMe statement. Noorlander reportedly took aim but his gun misfired. Left with no chance to pull out his bear spray, he took to defending himself with his fists. The bear mauled him and “gave him as [sic] what Rudy describes as the most disgusting french [sic] kiss of his life before biting down and tearing off his lower jaw,” per the statement.
Emergency responders were able to airlift a still fully conscious Noorlander to a nearby hospital and then to the University of Utah Hospital. (RELATED: Bear Attack Leaves 7-Year-Old Boy Hospitalized, Animal Euthanized)
Davis’s fundraising campaign for Noorlander’s healthcare costs has garnered $14,950 as of the time of this report.
Noorlander had to narrate the attack on a whiteboard for Davis, the Montana Trappers Association said.
Investigators deemed the bear attack defensive, having discovered a cached animal carcass near the attack site, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said. The bear reportedly was not found, and the attack site, within the Custer Gallatin National Forest near Big Sky, remained closed.
“Montana is bear country,” they also warned in a separate statement, adding that the increasingly fecund bears are in their foraging season which overlaps with the hunting season. They also offered tips on avoiding bear encounters.
A bear that killed a woman July 24 and injured a man back in 2020 was euthanized Saturday after breaking into a house with its cub in West Yellowstone, Montana.