Video shows bear biting man in ‘very unusual’ July 4 encounter
A group of men climbed to the top of Mount Wilson overlooking the greater Los Angeles area to watch fireworks throughout the city on July 4 when a bear provided a different kind of fireworks.
The bear, described by most as a juvenile, wandered into the area undoubtedly looking for food, and when the bear got close, some men scattered, prompting the bear to bite one of them in the rear.
The man who shot the video wished to remain anonymous. He shared the footage with FOX 11 Los Angeles.
“The bear just was going after this guy’s backpack,” the unidentified photographer told FOX 11 in a news report. “The bear was clearly going after the snacks.”
A major concern was whether a momma bear was lurking about, but nobody saw it if it had been.
Larry Giannone, retired police chief of nearby Sierra Madre, told FOX 11 that there had been over 100 incidents involving bears in the area during his tenure, but he never heard of a bear lunging at somebody, let alone biting someone.
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On a 1-to-10 scale with 10 being most unusual, Giannone was asked how he would rate this encounter.
“I’d rate it as a nine or 10,” he told FOX 11. “It’s very unusual to have that type of aggressive behavior from a little juvenile bear like that.”
The reaction to the bear’s presence was mixed with some doing the proper things.
“The bear was clearly very interested in this one gentlemen’s backpack, which must have had food in it,” Ryan Duke told FOX 11. “And there were four people down there. Two of the four people stood their ground and did what they probably should’ve done—just stood still and didn’t turn their back. Then two other people did turn their back and began running away and that’s when the bear did go after one person. And looks like it nipped him.”
FOX 11 reported that the injury was said to be non-life-threatening.
