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Bear Hug

Intermediate

Don't get too close to a brown bear!

bearbulgaria
The Alaskan brown bear is the biggest land-based meat-eating animal in the world. It weighs up to 770 kilos.

Brown bears have very
bad tempers. They can also run very fast. A running bear can reach 30 mph. That’s quicker than a horse. It’s certainly quicker than you.

Another thing bears don’t like is loud noises. Luckily, Marin Cogey remembered this at a vital moment. A bear was trying to crush the 55 year-old Bulgarian in his arms at the time.

Escape?

Mr. Cogey was hunting in woods near his home in Milkovica in Bulgaria when the bear attacked him from behind.

A real ‘bear
hug’ is no fun. Mr. Cogey had a rifle but couldn’t free his arms to use it. After a struggle he managed to hit the animal with the butt of his gun.

The bear let go. Somehow Mr. Cogey managed to fire his rifle into the air. That made a very loud noise! The bear ran off.

A happy end to the story? Not quite. There’s an expression in English; ‘you are not safe until you are out of the wood’. Mr. Cogey was still in the wood. And bears can still run at 30 MPH.

Mr. Cogey wanted to get away – fast. He was in such a hurry that he forgot to put the safety catch on his rifle. As he climbed to his feet, he slipped and lost his balance.

The gun went off again. This time it was pointing directly at Mr. Cogey’s head.

Lucky Escape

Some hours later another hunter was walking through the wood. He came across a body lying face down in the leaves. A rifle lay beside it.

When he touched the man’s head, he felt blood. ‘Oh no!’ he cried, fearing the worst.

At that moment the body came to life. Mr Cogey wiped the blood from his eyes. ‘What happened?’ he asked.

What had happened was this. The bullet had grazed Mr. Cogey’s head but missed the important bits. Mr. Cogey had lost consciousness.

‘It was a very lucky escape,’ Mr. Cogey later said in hospital. He was there with relatively minor injuries: a punctured lung and broken ribs. ‘The bullet missed by a few millimeters. ‘

So a man fights off a huge bear and escapes. Then he falls over - and nearly kills himself! There’s a lesson there somewhere.






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