A grizzly bear mauled a brave mother while she was running, but she says her two-year-old daughter inspired her to live.

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Vanessa Chaput, 24, of Yukon, Canada, told TODAY.com.

On June 30, Chaput and her German shepherd, Luna, were running along a paved route between Haines Junction and Pine Lake Campground in Ontario, Canada. Chaput said she is familiar with the route, which runs beside a highway and is near residential areas. It was 10:30 p.m., but the sun had just set, so as Chaput turned a corner, she could see the peril ahead.

Chaput stood face to face with three bears.

“I spotted the male that would attack me first… and two smaller bears about 10 feet away from me,” she recalled. “There was also a fourth, smaller bear right behind me, which I didn’t see.”

Chaput backed away and tugged on Luna’s short leash, but her dog, whose howl frequently scares off bears who wander into Chaput’s Haines Junction yard, went on the defensive. Luna broke free from Chaput and scared away the two younger bears, leaving him alone with the male bear. At the time, it’s unknown where the bear behind Chaput was.

As Chaput walked backward, the huge bear lunged at her.

“I picked a tree to get behind, but the bear took me down… it took my head in its mouth, and I ended up on the ground,” she told me.

Chaput and the bear wrestled on the ground.

“You feel like a rag doll, and there’s nothing you can do,” she stated. She further added, “I remember being thrown around.”

Chaput stated that she did not yell or experience any distinct agony.

“My adrenaline was going… there was an insane amount of pressure,” she recalled! “I have a pretty [high] pain tolerance.”

The bear’s claws curled around Chaput’s torso, penetrating her flesh around the spine and clawing her thighs. The bear also bit Chaput’s forearm.

The mother stated, “I’m not ready to leave my daughter and my husband.” Chaput claimed she simply “went into survival mode.”

According to Chaput, the attack lasted around five minutes until the bear got a grip on her head and went away. She attributed her saving grace to her hair clip bursting in the bear’s teeth or the jarring snap of branches underneath her. Chaput subsequently felt fragments of branches lodge in her throat, which she evacuated on her own.

Chaput cowered behind a tree, making herself as tiny and motionless as possible, but the bear was not finished.

“He charged across the path… and turned around and came back at me,” she stated. She added, “I didn’t think I could handle another round.”

Chaput speculated that Luna’s abrupt barking from a distance may have terrified the bear, as he smacked the ground with his paw and ran toward the sound of Luna’s barking.

“Her barking saved my life,” explained Chaput. She’s not sure why the smaller bears didn’t attack Luna, but she feels her powerful bark drove them away.

Chaput gradually traveled to the Alaska Highway, where she reunited with the unharmed Luna.

Chaput utilized her Apple Watch to contact both her husband, Dave Lee, and 911. She was hospitalized for ten days and had more than 30 stitches in her head, back, arm, and ear. She had a fractured arm, which is currently in a cast, and stated that she lost blood but did not require a transfusion.

Eight days later, Chaput reunited with her daughter. Leegstra told his child, “Mommy had an obligation.”

The Yukon Conservation Officer Services said on Facebook: “Conservation officers responded to a report of a serious bear incident on the Trans Canada Trail connecting Pine Lake to Haines Junction around 10:30pm on Sunday, June 30.”

According to the Facebook post, Chaput’s dog sparked “a defensive reaction” from the bear, which attacked the guy and caused major injuries that required medical care. The bear is believed to have halted its attack due to the dog’s prompting, allowing the individual to retreat and seek assistance.

According to the agency, a conservation officer responded by euthanizing a bear present at the incident’s precise location. The police acquired more information that numerous bears were involved. “We evacuated and closed the nearby campground for public safety reasons.”

According to the report, “Three more bears matching the description were found in the area, and two were euthanized.” The search for the fourth bear is still ongoing.

Officials are doing necropsies on the bears, who have “a mixed composition of ages and sexes.”

The post states that an Alberta lab will receive DNA samples from the bears and forensic materials from the area to identify the bear that attacked the human. The necropsy and testing will aid in understanding the group dynamics of the bears, as well as their potential connections based on breeding conditions and other genetic traits.

The Yukon government directed TODAY.com to a document that provides guidance on how to interact with bears, including their awareness or unawareness of human presence, and noted that bear interactions rarely result in an assault. The most essential thing is to remain calm.

Chaput isn’t ready to take the running route again, but she recently returned to the place of the attack with an armed conservation officer and her family, including Luna, to help her process her feelings about it.

“I am very shocked at how lucky I am,” Chaput stated. “I’m extremely thankful that God was watching over me that day.”