A man is recovering after he leapt onto a polar bear to prevent it from mauling his wife in their driveway in Canada, police said.
It worked — and the bear attacked the man instead, the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service said on Facebook on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
The couple had left their home before 5 a.m. to find their missing dogs when they encountered the polar bear, which lunged at the woman in their driveway, police said.
She slipped to the ground and her husband leapt onto the animal to protect her, officials said. The bear then attacked him, causing “serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arms and legs.”
A neighbor stepped in during the attack and shot the bear several times until it retreated into woods nearby and died from its injuries, police said.
It happened in Fort Severn First Nation, a small community near the Hudson Bay in far-North Ontario.
Officers patrolled the area to make sure there were no other bears roaming the community, officials said.
The man is expected to recover, officials said. People praised his heroic instincts in comments on the post.
“Don’t know the man but glad he’s OK and protected his wife, a hero in our books and also to his neighbor that came to the rescue with a (rifle),” someone said.
“What a hero,” someone else said.
Polar bears rarely attack humans, Alysa McCall, director of conservation outreach and a staff scientist at Polar Bear International, told CBS News partner CBC. When it does happen, it’s usually because the bear is hungry, young or unwell, she said.
“A healthy polar bear that’s out on the sea ice is not going to have a lot of incentive to attack a human being,” she told the station.
“If you’re attacked by a polar bear, definitely do not play dead — that is a myth,” she added. “Fight as long as you can.”
