This is the terrifying moment a man was forced to fight off a bear with a hatchet after disturbing her and her cubs.
Footage taken in the Zilina region of Slovakia on March 21 with a camera trap shows the man walking in the peaceful forest with his dog when the bear charges at him.
He can be seen spraying bear spray at it, with the bear initially retreating before having another go at him.
The man then strikes the beast’s head with his hatchet which he brought along to clear brush from the trail and the bear flees.
The man, named only as Peter, later said that he believes that he injured the bear, saying that it will probably become more aggressive as a result.
He said that he was walking in the forest with his dog when he noticed the female bear with three young cubs and one adult cub.
Peter, who has met and photographed bears many times before, said he tried to protect himself by making a noise and whistling so that his presence would not come as a surprise.
However, the mother bear did not retreat deeper into the forest as he had hoped, but instead attacked.
He said: ‘I hid behind a tree, and every time she ran out at me, I hit her on the head. If I hadn’t had that axe, she would have killed me there.’
The incident is understood to have continued after the footage ended, with the bear finally fleeing after he repeatedly defended himself using his hatchet.
It is currently unclear how badly injured the bear was in the encounter.
It comes after an enormous grizzly bear was captured on camera prowling through the snow near a tourist hotspot in Montana – marking the year’s first sighting as the predators emerge from hibernation.
The eerie footage, recorded on Thursday evening near the town of West Yellowstone, shows the apex predator plodding through a snowstorm, moving slowly as it approaches the camera set up on the ground.
The National Park Service confirmed on Wednesday that fresh grizzly tracks had been found in the park’s northern section – officially marking the start of the 2025 grizzly-watching season.
Professional wildlife photographer Trent Sizemore, who placed the trail cam, shared the clip on Facebook, where it quickly went viral, sparking hundreds of comments.
‘Looks like he wintered well!’ one user wrote.
‘Yay! Let the games begin. May he find some yummy food and start the season off in style. He looks not too thin!’ another added.
Sizemore, who has been tracking the same bear for years, believes it is a massive male grizzly that has consistently been among the first to wake from hibernation in the region.