Black bear nearly bites US hiker
A lucky hiker in the US has managed to escape an incredibly close encounter with two brazen black bears unharmed.
Stephanie Rivkin came across the two bears while walking on a trail at the Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area in Burlington, Connecticut, on Friday.
Two videos posted on Facebook, show the curious creatures walk towards Ms Rivkin and circle around her before running off scared.
“I’m walking with a bear right now, this is crazy,” Ms Rivkin can be heard saying as she walks alongside the tagged bears.
However things turn slightly scary, when one of the bears reaches out and opens its mouth as if to bite Ms Rivkin’s leg.
“Walking with bears. It put its mouth on my leg. OK ok I almost got bit. Scary,” Ms Rivkin posted on Facebook.
“This is something I’ll never forget. Please god let me get back to my car,” she added in another post.
Ms Rivkin told NBC Connecticut that she felt the bears would attack if she suddenly ran away.
"It was unlike anything I ever experienced before, so I didn't really know how to react or respond," Rivkin said.
“I felt his nose touch my leg and that's as close as he got," she said. "The teeth, I saw them clearly, but thank God I didn't feel them."
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) confirmed to NBC that the more curious of the two bears was a young male, aged 1 ½ years old and weighing 68 kilograms.
The trails around the area were closed after the incident and wildlife staff are now searching for the two bears.
Agency spokesman Dennis Schain said the DEEP were relieved Ms Rivkin was not injured in the rare incident.
"This was certainly an unusual incident as bears do not often approach people," he told NBC in a statement.
He noted the curious bear has been captured and relocated once before and said authorities were planning to euthanize it.
"That is the appropriate action to take after seeing this bear's behavior today," Mr Schain said.
Ms Rivkin said she would rather see the bears “moved to a safer area where they’re not putting hikers in danger”.
