A camper on Vancouver Island got the surprise of his life yesterday morning around 7 AM, when he awoke with a black bear inside his tent.
Jay Vinden, a 57-year old man from Sooke BC sustained serious injury to his skull in the attack near Taylor Flats.
The man was sleeping in a lean-to when the attack occurred. As the bear tore into the his scalp, Vinden screamed ‘bloody murder’ and his 47-year old friend Bruce Doyle came to his aid from a nearby tent.
After getting mauled himself, Doyle was able to reach for a knife and smack the bear on the snout, sending it fleeing back into the woods.
The only thing Vinden can recall was hearing a snort, then rolling over in his sleeping bag and being face-to-face with a black bear which was inches away by that point.
Both men were hospitalized with numerous claw marks, and Mr Vinden sustained serious injuries to his head requiring immediate attention.
Although the bear weighed only about 150-pounds, officials are considering it a predatory attack.
It is worth noting that black bears do not necessarily need to be big in order to be deadly.
The predatory bear that attacked and killed Olympic Biathlete Mary-beth Miller north of Quebec City back in 2000 weighed a scant 165 pounds.
Outdoorsguy
(This bear in Thunder Bay has already spent over two weeks with a plastic jar stuck to its head. MNR have been trying to locate the animal so they can tranquilize it and remove the jar)