A woman in Alberta had a close call when a black bear she was taking pictures of charged at her.
Dozens of people pulled over their vehicles on Sunday along Highway 93, south of Jasper National Park, to get a better view of the animal.
Stefan Jenart was also passing through the area at the time and caught the woman’s close encounter with the black bear on camera.
Jenart said people were getting out of their cars to take a closer look, when the bear charged at one woman who got too close.
The woman can be seen turning away from the animal as it runs towards her, before it backs down and she is able to walk away.
Jenart shared the video with CTV Calgary as a reminder to people to keep their distance from wildlife.
Meanwhile, an eight-year-old girl was injured on Saturday when a black bear attacked her tent at a backcountry campsite on South Cross Lake in Manitoba.
The girl was treated and released from hospital with cuts to her face, but is otherwise in good condition, according to Manitoba Sustainable Development.
The family had taken many appropriate safety precautions including hanging food in a bear-proof barrel in a tree away from the campsite, and removing or reducing other attractants at the site.
After the bear swiped the tent, injuring the girl, it climbed a tree and tried unsuccessfully to get into the food barrel.
The girl’s father was able to scare the bear away from the campsite, which allowed the family time to gather some essentials, alert other campers and get into their canoe so they could get to their vehicle.
And in May, a 14-year-old in Edmonton had his own close encounter with a bear.
Davin Grunow was hunting on treestands near Bonnyville, when a bear cub climbed the tree next to him.
His friend, Mark White, took a video of the encounter, while urging the teenager not to move.
“I knew he was coming straight for me. I was pretty scared,” Grunow told CTV Edmonton. “It felt like 10 minutes from when the bear came up. I was shaking like a leaf.”
At one point the bear can be seen leaning in to sniff Grunow, who doesn’t flinch.
“I’m watching him and I’m thinking to myself, ‘He has no emotion,’ and he did exactly what I told him to do,” White said.
Earlier this month a black bear had to be tranquilized after wandering into a residential area in Port Perry, Ont. and perching itself in a tree.
Officers with the Durham Region Police Service and Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry managed to capture the animal after several hours.
“It probably went up the tree in the first place because it unintentionally got into a populated area and was quite scared by that,” Jolanta Kowalski, a spokesperson for the MNRF, told CTV Toronto.
A video from the scene shows the bear falling from the tree after being hit by the tranquilizer and being caught in a net. It was then taken away in a trailer.
“Our staff did a great job getting the bear out of that tree,” Kowalski said.
The Government of Alberta provides tips to ‘Be Bear Smart’ on its website.
If you do encounter a bear, it is important to keep your cool.
“Your calm behaviour can reassure the bear. Screams or sudden movements may trigger an attack,” the website reads. “Never run - running may cause the bear to pursue you.”
