Bear runs full speed at golfer, then reacts bizarrely to golf clubs
Tim Jeves was about to play a shot on the 12th hole at Swaneset Golf Course and Country Club in British Columbia when he encountered a bear running full speed straight at him, a result of an oncoming golfer in a cart startling him.
“Do I make myself big and back away or do I run?” Jeves asked himself.
“I knew I’m supposed to do the former for a cougar but couldn’t remember whatever advice I’d been given for a frightened charging bear,” Jeves told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors.
Also on FTW Outdoors: Videos show Katmai brown bears getting too close for comfort
“Honestly, I didn’t have time to really think. I won’t say I ran, but I definitely didn’t back away slowly. I was moving quickly and loudly calling out ‘Hey bear! Hey bear!’ To try to scare or slow him. It didn’t. The one thing I did do, which I later thought was stupid, was drop my club. The one thing that might have slowed him if it had come at me.”
But it didn’t follow him. Instead, it climbed a tree, allowing Jeves a chance to get his phone out and videotape its next moves, which were quite bizarre.
As you can see, the bear appeared to be scared of the golf clubs sitting next to the tree, prompting Jeves to label his video, “Stationary Golf Clubs [a] Worthy Adversary for Scared Bear.”
Photo courtesy of ViralHog.