Man jogs past bear cub — and angry mama bear charges him in California neighborhood
A man out for a jog in a California community came across an adult bear and a cub on the side of a road — and started sprinting to get away from the mama bear that charged him, officials said.
The bear chased the jogger up an embankment in Long Barn, an unincorporated community in Tuolumne County, officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told McClatchy News in an email. It happened around 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12.
The 24-year-old jogger picked up a large stick, hit the bear over the head and tried to protect himself behind a tree, officials said.
But the bear charged him again, officials said. He sprinted to a nearby SUV parked in a driveway and climbed on top of it.
“The bear chased him the entire way and swiped at him multiple times, inflicting injury to his legs, back, and side of his torso,” officials said. “The bear continued attacking the man while he was on top of the vehicle.”
The homeowner heard the commotion, peeked outside and saw the man on top of her car with the bear right next to it, officials said.
She yelled at the bear and made noise to scare it off, then called 911, officials said.
That person was Heather Silfies, KOVR reported.
“I see this young man running down the road and a bear literally chasing and biting at him, and his shirt flapping in the wind,” she told the station. “It was just shredded and he didn’t have one of his shoes on all the way, so he’s literally running with the shoe not on.”
Silfies spotted the man on the roof of her Escalade, she told the station.
“The bear is standing at the Escalade and she’s trying to climb up. So she has her foot on the running board and she’s literally jumping up at him, wanting to get on the roof, just wanting to attack him,” she told the station. “ ... We feel blessed. We were there to be able to help this kid in need because it was one of these situations that it could have been life or death.”
Neighbor Philip Thomas also heard the commotion and came out to help, ABC10 reported.
“My wife had just come home and opened the door, and all of a sudden, we heard somebody yelling and screaming. He said ‘Bear!’” Thomas told the station. “ ... He had a big hole in his leg. I came out and grabbed two metal chairs that I have and made myself really big, and started clanging them together.”
The bear took off down the hill but then paused and looked back at him, so he got a log and threw it right next to the bear, he told the station.
“I’m not going to let somebody get eaten by a bear,” he told the station. “I’m sure the runner just spooked the bear somehow, and she felt threatened.”
The runner, Quanah Ottaway, told KCRA he thought he was a goner.
“I just didn’t wanna die. Like I really didn’t wanna die,” the 24-year-old told the station. “ ... I just can’t even believe it, like, the distance ‘cause people say you can’t run from bears,” he said, adding that they can run between 30 and 35 miles per hour. “I (sprinted) that whole way with her on my tail within like three feet.”
Ottaway told the station he was thinking about his kids and that he was grateful he hadn’t brought them with him.
Paramedics took him to a hospital and he is now in stable condition, “but suffered numerous injuries to his back, side and legs,” officials said.
Wildlife officers collected samples from the scene and from his scratch wounds at the hospital to confirm the bear attack, officials said. They also took his clothes.
“The effort is in progress to catch the offending bear” as of Friday, Aug. 16, officials said.
Long Barn is about a 115-mile drive southeast from Sacramento.
This story was originally published August 16, 2024 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Man jogs past bear cub — and angry mama bear charges him in California neighborhood."
