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For many people, encountering a bear in the wilderness is the stuff of nightmares. Impressively, jogger Evan Matthews managed to keep his cool when one pursued him for half a mile along a deserted road on a recent morning.
While out for a run in Grand Teton National Park earlier this month, Matthews noticed what he identified as a "cinnamon black bear" emerging from the forest. The Idaho resident stopped to film the massive carnivore with his phone camera. According to the resulting footage, which Matthews uploaded to YouTube, the bear then catches sight of him and charges.
"Hey!" Matthews shouts. "Stay back! No!" He angles his phone downward to show that he has a canister of bear spray in hand.
But the animal is undeterred. It trails Matthews all the way back to his car, though it maintains a safe distance—about 75 yards, Matthews told Buckrail—the entire time.
"I don't care if you're hungry," Matthews says. "I'm not your food. Sure, we can take a walk if you walk. You don't get any closer, though."
In the caption of the YouTube video, Matthews clarifies that he kept talking to the bear "to show that I was a Human and not to be mistaken for another animal." He didn't run for the same reasons.
"If I had, the bear could have thought of me as prey and chased me down. Being that I am not prey, I stood my ground when it charged (showing it that I'm not a prey animal) then backed away slowly," he wrote.
In addition, he advises against playing dead.
"That may save your life if a mother bear with cubs is attacking, as she may perceive the threat to be over. But with a solo bear who is interested in you like this, it is not trying to eliminate a threat - it is trying to find an easy target. Don't be one," he wrote.
While black bears rarely attack and eat humans, Matthews speculates that his pursuer was "fresh out of the den" and eager to fill its belly when it crossed paths with him.
"I've seen plenty of bears in the wild, but this was the first time one had shown any interest in me. He must have been extra hungry!" he wrote.
Thankfully, however, the encounter ends without either bloodshed or bear spray discharge. Once Matthew arrives at his car, the bear races into the woods, presumably in search of easier prey.
