It doesn’t get any crazier than this.
We’ve seen black bears do some pretty crazy shit… they just seem to be to smart for their own good.
They can break into cars, garages, garbage bins and just about anything that has a single crumb of food left out. All they really care about is getting fattened up for the winter and will eat just about anything that they would consider edible.
Although they aren’t particularly known for their hunting abilities, they still are very good at it when they need to be.
Black bears generally aren’t as dangerous as their larger grizzly and polar bear cousins, and if you’ve taken any sort of bear aware course, you were probably given the advice to square up with a black bear if it attacks.
There’s a couple reasons for this: 1) If a black bear attacks they are probably trying to kill you, so fight for your life. 2) Due to their comparable size on average to humans, you’d had a fighting chance against one.
Like Walt here…
Walt Hickox, a Daytona Beach, Florida, resident, was out on his porch with his three dogs when a black bear came barreling up over the gate meant to keep them on the porch.
Quick thinking, without any regard for his own safety, Walt lunged at the bear to rescue his Dachshund pup. The bear turned its attention to Walt, clawing at his back, but Walt managed to shove the bear down the stairs, hurl a bucket at it, and push a bench in front of the entryway before the bear could come back for more.
According to WFTV, the dogs were unharmed and Walt left the scrap with only some minor scratches:
“Not a lot went through my head at the moment, other than what’s going to happen if he gets past me and into the house where the rest of my dogs and my wife was at.”
Walt is planning on installing a screen door as well as buying some bear spray after the attack.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are looking to capture the bear, however this is the second black bear attack in Central Florida in the past week. A DeBary woman was attacked in her driveway last Thursday.
Nothing like wrestling a bear to get the adrenaline pumping, but my favorite part of the video is when Walt goes back into the house and yells:
“OH MY GOD… I just got attacked by a fucking bear.”
Obviously it’s the most obvious thing to say when you’re attacked by a bear, but he almost sounds excited… like, you’re never gonna believe this honey, but I just fought a bear off.
Good on you, Walt.
Crazy circumstances call for crazy measures… like, fighting a black bear.
This is one of those stories that would almost be hard to believe unless it was on video.
