“Being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
That’s how Conservation Officer Joel Kline describes a bear attack near Big Lake in the Williams Lake area on Sunday (July 17) that left a 79-year old man with injuries to have face, arms and legs.
Kline says the victim says he and his spouse were picking berries at the time and that they first saw the smaller bear before the Sow showed up and attacked.
“with that information, based on everything else that we found out, we believe it to be a defensive attack. It wasn’t predatory in nature, the sow was probably protecting the cub and the fact they had a food source there, the huckleberries, so she was probably just defending her cub and the food source.”
Kline says because of that they will not be removing the bear from the area.
He says the man is ding well and is now back home and is in good spirits.
This is the second bear attack in the region this year.
A mushroom picker was attacked by a male black bear in the Puntzi Lake area in early May.
In that case the bear was destroyed.
Despite these two incidents, Kline says bear attacks are still a rare occurrence.