A Canadian man is recovering from serious injuries after leaping onto a polar bear to protect his wife from being attacked, tribal authorities said.
The unidentified man suffered “serious injuries” to his arm and legs during the attack on Dec. 3 in the Fort Severn First Nation in northern Ontario, but is expected to recover, according to a statement on Facebook by the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service.
The bear was shot multiple times by a neighbor during the attack and died from its injuries in a nearby wooded area, police said.
The couple had left their home before 5 a.m. on Dec. 3 to retrieve their dogs when a polar bear lunged at the woman in the driveway, police said.
After she slipped and fell, her husband leaped onto the polar bear to try to stop the attack. The bear then attacked the man, causing “serious but non-life-threatening injuries” to his arm and legs, police said.
Police arrived to find the bear dead and learned that a man had been taken to receive medical attention following the attack. Authorities then patrolled the area to monitor whether any other polar bears were in the vicinity.
There are estimated to be more than 17,000 polar bears in Canada, which is two-thirds of all the polar bears in the world, according to the Canadian government.
Polar bears rarely attack, according to a 2017 study published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin. Between 1870 and 2014, there were 73 confirmed polar bear attacks distributed among the Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the U.S areas in which 20 people were killed and 63 injured, according to the study.
The study found that nutritionally stressed adult male polar bears were the most likely to pose threats to human safety. The animals also have come in closer contact with humans due to a decline in sea ice, the researchers found.