An ultra marathon runner savagely attacked by a bear in the woods has spoken out about his terrifying near-death experience.
Billy Halloran has had metal plates inserted in his arm after it was bitten by a powerful black bear, lost a chunk of bone in his hip and had three surgeries following the assault earlier this month.
The 32-year-old was 4k into an 8k run when he he came face-to-face with two Asiatic black bears in woods near the city of Myoko, Japan, where he lives.
Mr Halloran, who is originally from Auckland, New Zealand, realised the danger he was in and started backing away but one of the bears started moving towards him.
“It was around my size, it was an adult, it was at least 60 or 70 kilos ,” he told CNN. “I could see it was going to lunge at me – and it did. It grabbed my arm and I got pushed to the ground. Then in one bite, my arm was done.”
The bear continued to maul his leg after, leaving claw punctures and scratches before it eventually left.
“It’s hard to think back on that moment,” Mr Halloran told Radio New Zealand. “I was screaming a lot, in fight or flight, thinking, ‘well, this is either gonna go really, really bad, like it’s gonna let go and run away, or it’s just gonna keep going.’
“I thought, I just gotta defend here, or like, this is it, the worst case scenario.”
After the bear left, Mr Halloran called his wife to pick him up and he managed to run a further 1km to meet her fearing the animals would come back.
While the runner has a lot of physical rehabilitation to come, he said he hopes to train for more ultramarathon races in future, despite his ordeal
Japan has seen a record number of deaths from bear attacks this year, with at least seven people having died since April.
Last week, a 60-year-old man went missing on Thursday while cleaning an outdoor hot spring bath with fears he is the latest victim of a bear attack. At least five others sustained injuries following attacks in Akita and Fukushima prefectures, Fuji Television network reported.
Experts argue the climate crisis and rising temperatures are impacting hibernation patterns of the bears while habitat loss and food shortages are also to blame.
Earlier in October, a man in his 70s was found dead in the northern Iwate region after being attacked by the animal. His head and torso had been separated, local media reported. Two days later, the body of another man in his 70s was discovered in a forest in Iwate.
The Japanese government loosened restrictions on shooting bears in residential areas in April, following the rise in attacks. Hunters can now shoot in densely populated areas without explicit police permission.
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