Despite suffering severe injuries to his arm and legs, a man who leapt onto a polar bear to protect his wife during an attack in Ontario, Canada is expected to recover.
According to a media release issued by the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service of Ontario, Canada, on Tuesday, Dec. 3, before 5 a.m. local time, an unnamed couple "exited their home to find their dogs" in Fort Severn First Nation. It was in the their driveway that a polar bear "lunged" at the woman, who slipped and fell to the ground. This prompted the man to leap onto the polar bear, sustaining "serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and legs" in the process. The man is expected to recover.
A police release confirmed that the man had been mauled by the polar bear, before which officers were sent to the residence "following reports of gunfire." Police had been "made aware of a possible bear sighting in the same area," according to the release.
"When police arrived on scene they located a deceased polar bear and learned an adult male had been transported to the community nursing station to have his injuries assessed and treated," the statement reads.
Per the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Alysa McCall, an expert scientist at Polar Bears International and director of conservation outreach, pointed out that "when the ice breaks up, [bears] come inland in search of food," but generally hunt seals.
McCall advised traveling in groups when in bear country and locking up garbage to keep bears away. "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."
