A Canadian man jumped onto a polar bear to save his wife from a violent attack on Tuesday morning in Ontario. The chilling encounter occurred when the couple, living in the remote northern community of Fort Severn First Nation, left their home at around 5 am to search for their dogs.
As they approached their driveway, a polar bear suddenly lunged toward the woman. The man acted swiftly, jumping onto the animal in an effort to protect the woman. “The woman slipped to the ground as her husband leap[ed] onto the animal to prevent its attack,” said the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service in a statement. The bear retaliated, attacking the man and causing serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arms and legs.
During the struggle, a neighbour who heard the commotion rushed to help and shot the bear several times. Police, responding to reports of gunshots, later found the bear dead in the woods after it had retreated from the area. The man was taken to a nearby community nursing station where he received medical treatment, The Guardian reported.
Authorities are continuing to patrol the area to ensure the safety of the community and prevent any further bear encounters.
Fort Severn, located on the southern shores of Hudson Bay, is a small Swampy Cree First Nation community that is often in the path of polar bear migration.
Alysa McCall, a scientist at Polar Bear International, noted that polar bear attacks on humans are rare but tend to occur when the animal is hungry, young, or unwell. Normally the bears are far from human settlements, preferring to spend their time at sea hunting ice seals. But climate change has led to temperature fluctuations, breaking up ice and in some cases, driving bears inland to look for food, Ms McCall explained to The BBC.
Professor Andrew Derocher from the University of Alberta also highlighted the growing unpredictability of polar bears as climate change affects their natural habitats. “Each bear sort of comes with its own individual personality and its own body condition,” Derocher told The Guardian. “But as a general rule, polar bears will become more unpredictable as environmental conditions change.”
