A wildlife photographer taking long-distance photos of a bear in Prince Albert National Park suddenly becomes the focus of the bear, who begins to chase him and gets a little closer, forcing the man to use bear spray.
The video below shows the meeting.
Curtis Matushin, based in the village of Lake Vasquez in Saskatchewan, photographed the bear with his long lens 100 meters away.
“I was against the wind from the bear and she definitely smelled me. He started walking towards the path, so I also positioned myself further down the path to take a picture while crossing it, “Matushin wrote in his Facebook post. He reached the path, then started walking towards me.
When the bear approached 40 meters, Matushin left the camera and started talking to the bear, “so that he would know that I am human.” He continued down the path and turned away from it to give the bear an easy way to get past him.
“When he came out of the aisle and started following me, I started screaming and waving my arms over my head to try to scare him, but it wasn’t gradual,” he wrote.
He started recording on video while the bear continued to follow him, calmly saying “Hey bear, it’s all right… Hey bear, get out of here, I’m leaving а Wow bear.”
The bear continued to follow as Matushin walked backwards, pointing a box of bear spray at the animal, as seen in his
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“About five minutes after the bear followed me, but never charged me directly, I decided to empty my spray and fortunately it worked as designed,” Matushin wrote.
The bear immediately turned and left.
Many commentators on the Facebook post offered opinions (and criticisms) about what he did wrong, although others told him he did everything right. Even Matushin wished he had done something different.
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“Looking back, I probably should have thrown away the bear spray sooner and probably will in the future, but there was also a strong wind and I had to make sure I was against the wind from the bear and the spray,” he wrote. “We hope that this meeting will help the bear learn to run away from people instead of approaching them, as continuing behavior like this can lead to the destruction of a bear.
“Also for people wondering, this was filmed in a National Park in Canada, so it’s not legal to have a protection gun, and I believe there are studies that show that bear spray is actually a more effective deterrent than pistol.
The meeting serves as a friendly reminder to always carry bear spray when you are in their territory.
The photos were provided with the kind assistance of Curtis Matushin.
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