A 12-year-old Boy Scout was bitten by a black bear that broke into his tent during a camping trip in an upstate New York park.
“It was absolutely crazy!” Henry Ayers told NBC New York of the early-hours attack during a late April trip to Harriman State Park that fortunately left him with only a few scratches on his leg.
The 12-year-old Scout from Cooperstown told the outlet that the bear appeared in his tent around 1:30 a.m., seemingly looking for food.
“It moved my friend John, and then it moved me — but instead of grabbing my sleeping bag, it grabbed my leg and bit me,” he told NBC.
He said he “sat up and screamed.”
“It was crazy — it was a giant bear leaning right over me. I screamed and I kicked at it,” he said, saying the bear wandered away at the commotion.
The same bear came back again a few hours later, and was chased away again. The young troops “realized the bear was looking for people’s food, not people,” Scoutmaster Diana Nicols told the Times Herald-Record.
The bear was later captured in the state park, which is in Rockland and Orange counties and a neighbor to the suitably named Bear Mountain Park, officials confirmed to the outlets.
It was then “humanely euthanized” because its “dangerous behavior demonstrated habituation to human presence … and a clear threat to human safety,” the Department of Environmental Conservation and State Parks Department told the Times Herald-Record in a joint statement.
“I wish they didn’t euthanize it,” Ayers told the outlet, insisting it was not the animal’s fault it associated their campsite with food.
His mom, Sally Sharkey, told the local paper that her son had nine rabies shots over four days, but escaped serious injury.
“He had some scrapes and bruises, but other than that he was fine,” she said.
She also insisted that the terrifying run-in has not scared the young Scout off of future camping trips.
“He’s going on a one-week camping trip this summer … but this time, he’s requesting to bring bear spray,” his mom told the Times Herald-Record.
