Man 'Leapt Onto' Polar Bear to Save Wife

A man in Canada has been hospitalized after trying to save his wife from an attacking polar bear. The man, who lives with his wife and two dogs in Fort Severn First Nation in northern Ontario, received "serious injuries to his arm and legs" during his heroic efforts. The bear attacked at around 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday as the couple left their home to go find their dogs. The animal lunged at the woman in their driveway. "The woman slipped to [the] ground as her husband leapt onto the animal to prevent its attack. The bear then attacked the male, causing serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and legs," the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) said in a statement. A neighbor then emerged and shot the bear several times with a firearm.

"The bear retreated to a nearby wooded area where it died from its injuries," NAPS said. The police arrived following reports of the gunfire and a possible bear sighting in the area and found the dead polar bear in the woods. The woman was unharmed in the attack, and the man was taken to a community nursing station for treatment of his injuries, where he is expected to recover. Fort Severn is an indigenous Cree First Nation, home to around 500 people. Situated near the shores of Hudson Bay, it is the northernmost community in Ontario and is about 1,000 miles northwest of Toronto. Canada is home to about 60 to 80 percent of the world's polar bear population, with an estimated 16,000 of the bears found across the country. The animals are usually seen only in the country's northern regions, particularly areas like Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. In Ontario, much of the western Hudson Bay polar bear population is found primarily along the bay's coastline in the province's far north, where Fort Severn is located. During the summer and early fall, when the Hudson Bay ice melts, polar bears often remain on land, fasting and conserving energy until the sea ice refreezes in winter. They are most active in hunting when the sea ice is present, using it as a platform to catch seals. However, melting sea ice resulting from climate change has led to shorter hunting seasons, forcing polar bears to rely on fat reserves for longer periods while on land. Polar bears are listed as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, with many populations in decline. Polar bear attacks on humans are rare, but they can occur under certain circumstances. If sea ice is scarce or food is unavailable, a hungry bear might approach humans or settlements in search of sustenance. "A healthy polar bear that's out on the sea ice is not going to have a lot of incentive to attack a human being," Alysa McCall, director of conservation outreach and a staff scientist at Polar Bears International, told Canada's CBC News. "It could be that [when] this attack happened maybe this bear was a little hungrier than usual," she said. Between 1870 and 2014, 73 polar bear attacks on humans were reported, leading to 20 deaths. "If you're attacked by a polar bear, definitely do not play dead. That is a myth," McCall said. "Fight as long as you can." Melting sea ice is forcing bears to spend more time on land, bringing them closer to human settlements, which raises the likelihood of confrontations. Churchill, Manitoba—known as the polar bear capital of the world—even has a "polar bear jail" that keeps bears that won't leave the town alone sequestered until the sea ice returns. Fortunately for Fort Severn, the attacking bear no longer poses a threat. "Police continued to patrol the area to ensure no other bears were roaming the community," NAPS said. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about polar bears? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.