There are many unpredictable possibilities any hunter could try to anticipate they’ll face when they head out to hunt, but being attacked by a bear probably isn’t at the top of that list.
Prepared or not, that’s exactly what bow hunter Richard Wesley faced, and he caught it all on video.
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Wesley was roughly 100 feet away from a black bear, who was aimlessly walking around and not noticing him when he began filming.
He attempts to frighten the bear away by making loud noises but it doesn’t appear to work. As Wesley begins to back-up, the bear starts to charge and the whole thing immediately gets scary.
The bear makes a huge leap at Wesley once it’s right up on him, landing right at about his upper body. This is very unnerving because getting mauled by a bear on your chest or head could do some very serious damage.
Thinking quickly, Wesley puts up his bow and gets it in the bear’s mouth, so as to keep it from being able to easily bite him.
Eventually, he drops the camera, but can still be heard wrestling with the fierce beast.
After several seconds, Wesley retrieves his camera and heads for safety.
He looks down into the lens and says, “I should have shot a long time ago.” This suggests that he knew he was probably going to be in danger but tried to resolve the situation without unnecessary harm. That didn’t really pan out.
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In a caption on the video, Wesley wrote, “I am so happy after this confrontation with a black bear during our spring hunt,’ Wesley wrote in a caption with the video. 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. Proving that the black bear is a wild and unpredictable animal. Again so happy with the outcome.”
Admittedly, it is not clear if the bear survived the scuffle, and Wesley has not commented on that directly, but it’s presumed that “non-fatal…outcome” means they both walked away.
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[H/T: Daily Mail]
