This Man Captured the Terrifying Start of a Bear Attack

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Richard Wesley

Like these bikers proved earlier in May, there are few things more terrifying than seeing a bear charging at you in the wild. That's the situation Richard Wesley found himself in this spring while on a bow hunting trip in Fire River, Ontario. (He wasn't hunting bears.)

In the video, captured by Wesley on a head-mounted camera, the bear doesn't seem to mind Wesley's presence initially. But as Wesley attempts to scare off the approaching black bear, the situation turns faster than milk left overnight on the counter. The bear charges and as it knocks the hunter over, the camera flies off. It lands next to a puddle, with its red record light reflecting off the water, as though this is the end of a gruesome found footage film.

Fortunately, it wasn't a tragic end for Wesley. "I should have shot a long time ago," he says into the camera after he retrieves it. That sentiment is accompanied by a fair deal of relieved cursing.

Wesley emerged with only "a bruised elbow and ego where the bear threw me down," he wrote on YouTube. He doesn't detail what happened while the camera was turned away, only that he's "genuinely happy that this was a non fatal or tragic outcome."

h/t Digg

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Dustin Nelson is a News Writer with Thrillist. He holds a Guinness World Record but has never met the fingernail lady. Follow him @dlukenelson.