Bears are one of the most powerful creatures on land, so when you can walk away from a close encounter with one in the wild, consider yourself an extremely blessed individual.
Richard Wesley is one such person. He had been out bowhunting one day near the Fire river in Ontario, Canada when a black bear wandered into view.
At first, the bear appeared oblivious to his presence, and Wesley thought it prudent to stay put, to not attract attention and let the bear be on its way.
But then the bear started lumbering towards him. Wesley made a lot of noise in an attempt to scare off the animal. This proved ineffective as the bear charged at him. The last thing the camera captured before getting knocked off was Wesley raising his bow arm in an attempt to block off the bear’s front paws and swat the head with his bow.
Wesley later retrieved the camera and showed himself visibly shaken and out of breath. His words barely understandable.
“No wounds except a bruised elbow and ego where the bear threw me down. Genuinely happy that this was a non-fatal or tragic outcome,” he wrote on YouTube.
While making loud noise is one of the common methods of scaring off wild bears, they are still highly unpredictable and a maximum amount of caution should always be exercised. JB