Videos

Bear spray is your friend. That’s the message from the terrifying video below showing a photographer being stalked by a black bear in the woods in Canada only to turn the tables on the animal with a well-placed blast of bear spray.

“I was out photographing a bear from a safe distance when it caught scent and sight of me,” photographer Curtis Matwishyn told ViralHog.

“Normally, I'm used to black bears running away when they're aware of a person, but this bear was behaving oddly. It came towards me and followed me even after I stood my ground, shouted, and waved my arms at it. Luckily, I had bear spray and prepared myself to use it if the bear charged at me.”

As you’ll see, Matwishyn times his shot of spray just right so the wind carries it directly into the bear’s face. The hairy beast quickly turns tail, and the threat is alleviated. Despite his fear, the photographer remained calm during the incident.

“I slowly and safely started retreating back to my car and after a couple of minutes of it following me, I decided to start filming,” he said. “The bear continued to follow me and was getting closer. When I was in a good position with the wind at my back and the bear coming close to me, I sprayed it with the bear spray. Thankfully the bear spray worked as designed and sent the bear running away."

In addition to the video, Matwishyn was able to capture some still photos of the young black bear, which you can see here.

“I believe that this bear likely has been fed, either intentionally by uninformed people or unintentionally through garbage or food not properly being secured,” he noted. “Hopefully this beautiful young bear will learn to stay away from humans and that people will learn to be more responsible in both not feeding wildlife and carrying bear spray, so they are ready to respond to a bear like this.”

Matwishyn’s confrontation with the black bear occurred near Waskesiu Lake in Saskatchewan. You can see another crazy video showing a large grizzly bear appearing to sit down next to a photographer in Alaska here.

Via PetaPixel