Bear Mauls Tourist Who Ignored Warning Signs On Feeding Animals

A black bear mauled a tourist at a wildlife park at Badaling Wildlife World near Beijing, China, after he ignored warning signs about not feeding the animals. The man, identified only by his last name Chen, was attacked when he attempted to feed the animal by throwing food outside his car.

The incident was reportedly caught on caught on camera, South China Morning Post reported. The man suffered a serious bite after one of the bears jumped at the car, forcing the window to open. The Beijing Evening News reported that the man had asked one of his friends in the car to take a photo of him feeding the bear.

Chen made an effort to close the window when the bear was only a few inches away but failed. Despite trying to fight the bear off, the animal bit his arm before they drove off to another part of the sanctuary.

The officials at the sanctuary have previously warned visitors to keep their car windows closed when inside the animal enclosures. “I know it was wrong, but at that point, I was too scared and in pain,” Chen reportedly said.

Chen was sent to the park’s tourist center to get his wound disinfected following which he was rushed to a hospital in Beijing.

Chen told the Beijing Evening News that he regretted not abiding by the park rules but was also upset that the park rangers did not appear very sympathetic towards him.

Visitors should only feed animals that were not in the “wild beast enclosures,” the manager of Badaling Wildlife World, only named as Li, told the Beijing Evening News, adding that the park is closely monitoring Chen's condition.

This is not the first time that a visitor was attacked by a wild animal at Badaling Wildlife World. Last July, a Chinese woman was killed and her daughter seriously injured after being attacked by tigers in the sanctuary. The two got off the car without realizing they were still in the animals' enclosure.

At the time, CCTV footage showed a tiger dragging the daughter before her mother ran over to help her. The girl was rescued alive by the staff, but the mother died.

In another incident that took place in Russia's Shelekhov district of Irkutsk region last week, a man was bitten by a bear after he jumped into the animal’s enclosure in a drunken state to feed it milk. The man received treatment at a hospital for his severed arm.

“Of course, it is his fault. He jumped over [the fence] and went to feed them," the man's brother told local media. “For drunken Russian men, the fence needs to be higher. Both my brother and the cafe are guilty. And it will be good if the cafe offer compensation because he is disabled now,” he added.

A similar incident occurred in Thailand earlier this month when a man was mauled by an Asian black bear after he teased the animal. Referring to the incident, a representative for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals told the Daily Mail: “If you taunt a hungry bear, you're likely to get hurt.”