'Up jumped the bear': Nipper's Harbour man has 'startling' encounter with cub

A man from Nipper's Harbour had a closerencounter with a black bear cub than he wanted when he spotted the animal on the highway near La Scie, on Newfoundland'sBaie Verte Peninsula.

"This bear was in the middle of the road, and my dad was driving,so Isaid, 'stop the car so Ican get a picture," Brad Perry told CBC Radio's Central Morning Show.

As his dad slowed to a stop, the bear circled over near to Perry, onthe passenger side of the truck.

"Iput the window down, and before Ihad a chance to do anything, up jumped the bear. It was kind of startling actually."

It may only have been a cub, but still armed with intimidatingly sharp claws.

"They were quite long," said Perry,still digesting the surprise several days later.

He said at the time, he wasn't afraid.

"Because it happened a little bit too fastBut after we were going up the road, it was kind of like, 'What just happened?'"

Orphaned cub

Perry said there have been rumours in the area of a wandering cub.

"Ihave heard that the mother was killed and he was left to fend for his own self, and from what I've been hearing, a lot of people have been feeding it," he said.

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"Iguess he's been acquiring the taste of our food."

For his part, Perry did not offer the bear anything and said he never would.

"Iwouldn't condone feeding the bears.That's basically a death sentence for the bear as far as I'm concerned."

While he'll keep an eye out for the cub in the future, Perry said he won't be trying to get that close to it again.

"That was a once in a lifetime experience for me.Ithink that was close enough," he said.

"It's a wild animal. It might be cute but it could still be dangerous."