A karate expert managed to fend off a bear attack that he thought would cost him his life by kicking the animal twice in the face, Japanese media report.
Masato Fukuda was slightly injured in his encounter with a pair of bears Thursday morning in the town of Nayoro on the northern island of Hokkaido, police said.
He was walking to see a waterfall in the mountainous area of Nayoro around 10:30 a.m. when he came across the two brown bears poking their faces out of the bushes, Japanese media reported.
The two bears chose the wrong person to mess with when they approached the 50-year-old man, who was visiting the forested area from Toyota City.
One of them approached him, but, unfortunately for the animal, Mr. Fukuda had experience in the martial art of karate.
Video footage recorded by the hiker appeared to show one of the bears fleeing into the forest.
Masato Fukuda was slightly injured in his encounter with a pair of bears Thursday morning. Here he appears speaking to Japanese television station NHK.
“I thought I had to act or they would kill me,” he told a local station.
Fukuda kicked him in the face (twice) and twisted his leg in the process, but he was unharmed, he told reporters.
The hiker said that while he managed to scare away one of the predators, the other initially kept its distance and appeared threatening.
Frightened, Fukuda returned to his car and managed to record a video of the animal looking at him.
The footage shows him looking at it from outside the forest, before turning around and running towards the mountains.
‘I was just lucky. “The bear just ran away, so I was saved, but if the bear had pounced on me, I wouldn’t have had a chance,” Mr Fukuda said. STV.
Both animals appeared to be about 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, according to Japanese media. Grizzly bears can weigh half a ton (1,100 pounds) and run faster than a human.
The Ussuri brown bear found in Hokkaido is a slightly smaller cousin of the grizzly, but much larger than the Japanese black bear on the mainland of Japan.
File image showing an adult female brown bear chasing salmon on the Shiretoko Peninsula, Hokkaido.
The number of bear reports received in Hokkaido this month exceeded 100, much more than in previous months, according to one media outlet. NHK reports, citing police.
There have reportedly been numerous bear sightings in the town of Nayoro this month and police are conducting patrols to warn residents.
Authorities in the area have urged hikers to be vigilant when enjoying the forests, especially as the number of bear sightings in the area has been increasing.
It comes after a bear attacked a tourist in Europe this week, who also managed to hopefully escape.
British tourist Moira Gallacher was mauled in the arm by a brown bear in Romania but was saved by her “thick M&S jacket”, a friend traveling with her revealed this week.
The zookeeper reportedly only suffered minor injuries in the attack.
In another terrifying episode in China, a zookeeper was attacked by pandas, who bit her in front of horrified visitors.
The woman was attacked after bringing snacks to the huge bears’ enclosure and was only saved when a colleague came to her aid.
Fortunately, he reportedly only suffered minor injuries in the attack.