(CNN) -- If Marco Lavoie had not been rescued when he was, the Quebec man probably would have perished within 48 hours. 
 
 He was hypothermic, dehydrated and near starvation in the unforgiving cold of northwestern Quebec when police rescued him Wednesday. 
 
 Lavoie's survival might be called miraculous, as he had been in the wilderness for more than three months. 
 
 The 44-year-old is an experienced outdoorsman, but an encounter with a bear changed his luck, Quebec police said 
 
 At some point during a planned two-month canoe trek in the Lake Matagami area, a bear attacked Lavoie's campsite, eating his food and ruining his equipment, police spokeswoman Christine Coulombe said. 
 
 The bear did not injure Lavoie but left him without the tools or resources to survive. Police say they have yet to speak with Lavoie to get details. 
 
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 "In these parts, there's a subculture of people who go on these long trips into the middle of nowhere, but sometimes we forgot how dangerous it can be," Gerald Lemoine, mayor of a small town near Matagami, told the Montreal Gazette. 
 
 The rescued canoeist began his adventure July 16, Coulombe said. It wasn't until three months later, on October 21, that his family called authorities because too long had passed without Lavoie's return. 
 
 Police conducted searches for eight days, weather permitting, with no luck. 
 
 Rescuers in a helicopter finally spotted Lavoie on Wednesday, but they could not safely land at that spot, Coulombe said. So officers had to hike in to pick him up and carry him more than a mile to the chopper. 
 
 Lavoie's condition was such that he was barely able to speak and at first couldn't even drink water, the Gazette reported. 
 
 Had he spent another day or two in the elements, he would have starved to death, police spokesman Ronald McInnis said. 
 
 The man had lost half of his body weight, he said. 
 
 It was Lavoie's German shepherd who scared the bear away on the day of the attack, but the dog did not survive the ordeal, McInnis said. 
 
 "Up there, in the Canadian shield, there's little plant life to live off, so he would have been slowly, painfully dying when they found him. It's an amazing feat that he was able to keep himself alive this long with almost no equipment," survival instructor Caleb Musgrave told the Gazette. 
 
 "When you start to go hungry, you get mood swings, your mind breaks, and you cramp up all over your body. Eventually, your body will start cannibalizing itself, eating away at the fat in your organs and then in your muscles. It takes someone who won't give up in the face of that," he added. 
 
 Woman carries stranded, wounded pit bill down mountain ||||| MONTREAL — Outdoorsman Marco Lavoie, rescued Wednesday after three months in the deep woods near James Bay, made the heartbreaking decision to kill and eat his beloved German shepherd to stay alive. 
 
 A source close to the amazing story told QMI Agency that Lavoie, 44, sacrificed his dog when he became stranded at the Nottaway River, roughly 800 km northwest of Montreal. 
 
 A bear had eaten Lavoie's food and destroyed his boat in mid-July, leaving him alone with the dog. 
 
 A few days after the bear attack, the person who spoke to QMI on condition of anonymity said Lavoie used a rock to kill his dog before eating the pet. 
 
 By the time provincial police airlifted him out three months later, Lavoie was barely able to speak or eat. He suffered hypothermia and dehydration and had lost about 90 pounds. 
 
 Survival expert Andre Francois Bourbeau said Lavoie did what he could to live. 
 
 "He survived because he made good decisions. Eating his dog was one of them," said Bourbeau, author of a survival guide. 
 
 Bourbeau has researched hundreds of similar stories, some of which include cannibalism. 
 
 "You have to be desperate, but there's no shame in (eating the dog)," said Bourbeau. "He had to use reason." 
 
 The survival expert says that after 30 days in the wilderness with no food, Lavoie's body would have gone into shock from starvation. 
 
 "Hunger squeezes you so much that you would accept food that's not normally possible," said Bourbeau. "You can crave slugs and bugs." 
 
 Lavoie is an experienced hiker who often spent weeks in the wilderness by himself. But the Nottaway River is considered too dangerous even for the hardiest outdoorsmen. 
 
 Andre Diamond, a Waswanipi Cree who lives on an island at the mouth of the river, said he warned Lavoie to stay away. 
 
 "He said it didn't scare him, but it's not a river to travel alone," said Diamond. "Other adventurers have gone there over 20, 30 years and never came back." 
 
 Sydney Ottereyes, a local Cree who was part of the Lavoie search party, said the river is downright dangerous. 
 
 "It's a complicated river with lots of rocks," said Ottereyes. "In some places, there's plenty of water while elsewhere there's none. The wind comes and there can be up to three currents in the same place." 
 
 Lavoie is currently hospitalized in "very serious" condition. ||||| A hiker was rescued after surviving a bear attack and spending three months, exposed to snow and freezing temperatures, in a remote corner of northern Canada, police said. 
 
 Police located Marco Lavoie, 44, in the wilderness near Waskaganish, Quebec, on Wednesday, 10 days after his family reported him missing and nearly a month after the experienced outdoorsman was expected to return from a two month hiking expedition. 
 
 Police believe Lavoie survived the bear attack uninjured, sometime in August, when his German shepherd got in between the man and the bear, Sgt. Ronald McInnis, spokesman for the Quebec Provincial Police told ABCNews.com. 
 
 "The bear ate the man's food and damaged his survival equipment," said McInnis, "But his dog went between the man and the bear and protected him. The man was not injured in the attack." 
 
 McInnis would not say what became of the dog and would not comment on reports that Lavoie may have eaten the dog to survive. 
 
 Lavoie suffered "hypothermia, dehydration and starvation," police said, but he is expected to survive his injuries. 
 
 The hunt for Lavoie was initially hampered by heavy snow and high winds that grounded helicopters on Oct. 21, but on Oct. 30 a chopper crew spotted Lavoie and officers were dropped in the area that was described by McInnis as "wild." 
 
 Lavoie was too weak to walk, and a QPP officer carried the man on his back for nearly two miles to the helicopter, a trip that due to snow and rugged terrain took three hours, McInnis said. 
 
 Cops believed the man would have been dead within hours had he not been rescued. He was too weak to eat or drink water and is receiving fluids via IV. 
 
 Police are waiting for the man to further recover in order to continue their interview and learn exactly why he was unable to escape the wilderness and the measures he took to survive. ||||| 
 
 The Canadian Press 
 
 
 
 
 
 MONTREAL -- A man has been rescued after spending three months in a remote forest during which he survived a bear attack, and wound up emaciated and clinging to life. 
 
 Police are sharing the improbable story of 44-year-old Marco Lavoie, an experienced hiker who set off on what was supposed to be a two-month excursion on July 16, 2013. 
 
 Police can't say exactly when that bear attack occurred. But it's believed that in mid-August, halfway through his planned trip, the animal attacked his encampment, ate his food, and destroyed his survival gear. 
 
 Given all his experience in the deep woods, his loved ones simply assumed when he didn't turn up last month that he'd extended his stay in the Lake Matagami region of northwestern Quebec. 
 
 But they became increasingly alarmed in recent weeks and called the provincial police on Oct. 21. Police sent out a helicopter to rescue him. 
 
 The helicopter couldn't land. So two police officers dropped down, and one carried Lavoie back up on his shoulders. They brought him to hospital. 
 
 Police say he was rescued just in time. 
 
 "We believe he might have died in a few more hours -- 24 to 48 hours more," said Sgt. Ronald McInnis, a provincial police spokesman. 
 
 "He's in critical condition. He wasn't even able to drink water when we offered him some. He will be on an IV for several weeks. 
 
 "He will gradually learn to drink, and then eat, again." 
 
 The man had lost much of his body weight and was suffering from hypothermia when he was found: "It's already been snowing (up there) for two or three weeks. The nights are cold," McInnis said.
– An incredible story of survival out of northwestern Quebec, where a 44-year-old was rescued as few as 24 hours before officials believe he would have likely died. Marco Lavoie set off on July 16 for what he intended to be a two-month spell in the woods, reports the Canadian Press. The timeline of what happened between that date and Oct. 30 is somewhat mushy: About a month after his departure, a bear attacked his campsite, leaving him without food or gear. Sgt. Ronald McInnis tells ABC News, "His dog went between the man and the bear and protected him." Unconfirmed reports say Lavoie was later forced to eat the German shepherd; McInnis wouldn't comment on that detail other than to say the dog did not survive, reports CNN. But the details that have been confirmed are pretty jarring: Lavoie lost nearly half his body weight and had begun to suffer from hypothermia, having weathered snow and temps below freezing. He was essentially unable to eat, drink, or speak when he was found, having been spotted by helicopter along the Nottaway River on Wednesday, nine days after a missing persons report was filed (as an experienced outdoorsman, Lavoie's family wasn't initially concerned when he didn't return as scheduled). Lavoie is expected to recover after what will likely be weeks spent on an IV, and police are waiting to talk to him about his experience. One survival instructor, talking to the Montreal Gazette, had this to say: "Up there, in the Canadian shield, there's little plant life to live off so he would have been slowly, painfully dying when they found him. It's an amazing feat that he was able to keep himself alive this long with almost no equipment." (Click to read about another tale of survival involving a bear.)