The level of ferocity and aggression in such attacks is often deeply disturbing. The worst bears attack suddenly from dense cover by surprise, often from the rear. A lone human has little chance even if armed. One very lucky man who did survive such an attack did so because he accidentally left the safety off and a round chambered. He only saw a black streak out of the corner of his eye before he was knocked down. He kicked at the bear, which grabbed his boot and started dragging him into the woods. He put the rifle under the bear's chin and fired twice, killing it instantly. Usually, once a bear gets a man down on the ground (by charging him or just by punching him boxer-fashion with a paw), it tries to grab the neck in its jaws so it can administer a killing bite. Sometimes, if the victim seems particularly weak or passive, the bear will start eating him alive like a shark. Also like a shark, some bears circle around their victim in the woods, slowly closing in for a sudden attack. The black bears here in some respects behave like a different species. They show behavior patterns you basically never see in U.S. bears.
In the worst attacks, the bear will try to prey on every human he can find. Some have taken several victims, then cached the bodies as a food supply. In one incident (not in B.C.), four teenage boys were fishing in a woodland stream. The four had gotten back in their car to leave, when one boy decided to go back and try again. When he didn't show up, two others went out to look for him. They didn't return either; so the remaining teenager, realizing something was seriously wrong, wisely went for help. They found a male black bear guarding the three bodies in the woods where he had dragged them after killing them one by one. The fourth teenager would almost certainly have met the same fate had he gone to look for the others.
The worst recent incident took place in Liard Hot Springs National Park (in far northern B.C. along the Alaska Highway) less than 2 years ago. Here a black bear weighing a little over 200 pounds killed 2 tourists and seriously injured 2 more, in an incident that has received a lot of publicity. Investigation of the bear proved he was not of the regular Liard bear population but a recent arrival from the deep wilderness. He first attacked without warning a woman traveller who was moving from Texas to a new life in Alaska. Her lung was punctured by a deep bite on the side and she slowly died. Her 12-year-old son tried to fight the bear, so the bear knocked him down and grabbed him by the back of the neck, and shook hard, causing serious injuries. A local B.C. man took a stick and hit and jabbed the bear with it, and caused him to release the boy before he had broken the boy's neck (the boy lived). The bear charged the man, knocking him off the boardwalk to the ground below. The bear first bit him in the throat, severing the jugler vein, then broke his neck instantly killing him with a powerful, deep, twisting bite. The bear then took several bites of flesh from the corpse's thigh. Meanwhile, the other people were throwing rocks and sticks from the boardwalk above, and despite threats and growling from the bear, they succeeded in driving him off. The bear headed for the parking lot. By this time, warning had spread, and the people fled for safety. One unfortunate young man tripped and fell and the bear was on him in an instant. This time, the bear decided not to go to the bother of killing first. He squatted on the young man's head and chest and was shot dead just as he was about to take a big bite out of the groin region.
