**Related Video Above: Video shows Black Bear wandering through homeowners’ driveway in Ashtabula County.**

BIG SKY, Mont. (WJW) — A man is in critical but stable condition after being attacked by a grizzly bear outside of Yellowstone National Park in Montana, his family confirmed.

Rudy Noorlander, a Navy veteran who owns an outdoor adventure company, was reportedly leading a group of hunters trying to find a deer they had shot on the Yellow Mule Trail when they encountered two bears, Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue said.

The man was attacked by one of the animals and was badly injured — including having his jaw ripped off — after not being able to shoot it.

Noorlander was life-flighted out of the area, and is recovering at a Utah hospital after an initial surgery in Montana.

  • Photo courtesy Gallatin County Sheriff
  • Photo courtesy Gallatin County Sheriff

“My father is the bravest and strongest man I know,” his daughter KateLynn Davis wrote in a GoFundMe fundraiser set up up for Noorlander.

Davis said the other hunters were eventually able to scare the animals off.

“Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer would like to remind hunters that having a plan for contingencies along with being able to call for aid is crucial in the backcountry,” the Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue said in a statement.