Kiwi’s close encounter of the furred kind
A Kiwi photographer in Canada got the fright of his life when he was confronted by a large black bear in the wild.
Aucklander Larryn Rae was taking pictures of the scenery around Vancouver Island, on Friday morning (NZT) when the excursion turned hairy.
‘‘In that second I don’t think I’ve been so scared, and so in awe of something in my life,’’ he said.
Rae, a professional photographer, and a photographer friend were taking sunset shots at Botanical Beach when a pair of French tourists said they had just seen a bear around the headland.
He was not convinced at first, but was eager for a glimpse of the animal in its natural habitat. So he headed to higher ground for a better view.
‘‘I couldn’t see anything at all just with my eyes so I looked through the camera’s zoom, but I still couldn’t see anything.
‘‘So I put my camera down and right in front of me, 20 metres away coming towards me, was the bear.’’
Rae froze for half a second as the adrenalin surged through his body.
‘‘It looked huge. I thought I was lunch.’’
Backing slowly away, Rae made for the beach, planning an escape route if the bear decided to charge.
‘‘I would have run into the ocean, and just tried to keep my camera above the water.’’
He shouted warnings to others as the bear began following him.
Not until he reached safety did Rae turn back to capture images of the bear.
As it wandered towards his equipment, Rae could see it appeared to be a black bear, very In that second I don’t think I’ve been so scared, and so in awe of something in my life. inquisitive humans.
‘‘We were a little bit worried about the gear but we thought he was going to walk past it but suddenly he just turned, looked at the gear and went straight for it and started rummaging around.
‘‘We figured that he had just sniffed out our muesli bar stash.’’
At one point, Rae and his companion were concerned for their equipment, which Rae estimated to cost about $15,000. and not scared of
It was when the bear singled out the drone bag that his friend took more serious action, throwing his pocket-sized protective hunting knife at it.
Rae said the visibly wounded.
‘‘I saw the bear’s head reel back, then it looked up in shock and wandered off.
‘‘We had a real nervous walk back through to the bush at dark to get back to the car.’’
Rae said the experience with the animal wasn’t ‘‘unpredictable creature’’ was a complete rush.
‘‘While it’s not uncommon to see bears in Canada, it’s pretty rare to see it in the way we did.
‘‘It’s one of the ultimate wildlife experiences, I’ve never experienced anything like it.’’
Rae is a professional photographer and was most recently recognised for his pictures capturing a rare showing of the Aurora Australis in Auckland.