Bear attack was ‘out of the blue’
Torben Lund went out looking for a birds, but ended up finding a bear.
The 53-year-old tourist from Copenhagen, Denmark, was scoping out spots to go birdwatching along the Powerline trail along Quarry Lake near Canmore at about 8:45 p.m. Saturday when he was attacked by a brown-coloured bear.
As he walked, he met a man riding his bike, another man walking his dog and saw about 30 people wading in the lake.
“I really didn’t think about bears in the area,” Lund said in an interview with the Herald late Monday. “I was walking up a small hill — this area was 50 metres away from houses. I think I even thought, ‘There are no bears here.’
“Then, just out of the blue ... this bear attacked me. I don’t know exactly what happened. It went so fast.”
He remembered hearing footsteps, something running.
“I turned my head and he was immediately beside me. He went straight at me,” recalled Lund. “I panicked or whatever I did. I remember thinking, ‘This is not happening, this can’t be happening.’”
He yelled and defended himself with his binoculars, which he believes hit the bear, and he didn’t fall to the ground.
After a brief struggle, Lund said the bear turned around and left in the same direction it came from.
“I had the adrenalin pumping and I just backed away, walked away, looking back, sometimes walking backwards to make sure he wasn’t coming back.”
It’s still unknown whether it was a grizzly or black bear.
There was a bear warning in place, because a brown-coloured female black bear with cubs, another black bear and a grizzly have been spending time in the area.
It’s believed the bear was feeding on berries and responded defensively.
Fish and Wildlife officers have closed the area and set up three traps to try to capture the bear, but it hasn’t been spotted since the attack. They have said it could be relocated due to the attack, which has led to some criticism that Lund shouldn’t have been in the area at dusk.
Lund, who only suffered scratches and bruises, said it was still light out when he returned to his car at about 9 p.m.
“It was not dark at all,” he said, noting he saw a couple of other people and rolled down his window to tell them what happened. “They were shocked. They had never heard of anything like that in that area.
“I got out of the car and about four or five more people were coming down the road from an evening stroll and they also seemed very surprised.”
He’s disturbed that he’s being painted as a “stupid birdwatcher” who wasn’t paying attention in the wilderness.
“I wouldn’t describe the area as wilderness. It’s more like a park,” he said. “A lot of people were travelling alone on this path. I didn’t think I was irresponsible in any way.
“I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In hindsight, Lund said he will buy bear spray for protection but, as a birdwatcher, he’s not too sure about the advice from experts to make a lot of noise in bear country.
“To be completely honest, if you go around in the woods making lots of noise,” he said, “you don’t see too many birds. Usually you try not to make too much noise.”