Bare hands — or bear hands?

Bear Hands

A fearless Canadian threw himself on a polar bear to protect his wife in the country’s far north.

As the CBC reports, the man fortunately didn’t suffer any life-threatening injuries and is expected to make a full recovery.

The epic brawl occurred at Fort Severn First Nation, a tiny community of roughly 500 people just under 1,000 miles north of Toronto, Canada. It’s the northernmost community in the Canadian province of Ontario.

The couple was looking for their dogs when a massive polar bear lunged at the woman.

“The woman slipped to ground as her husband leapt on to the animal to prevent its attack,” the local Nishnawbe Aski Police Service said in a statement. “The bear then attacked the male, causing serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and legs.”

Claw Machine

Unfortunately, the incident did have an unfortunate ending. A neighbor quickly hurried over and shot the bear several times with a gun. According to the cops, the bear ran off into the woods “where it died from its injuries.”

Polar Bears International director of conservation outreach Alysa McCall told the CBC that polar bear attacks on humans are rare, but when they occur, they usually involve a hungry, young, or unwell bear.

In the greater Hudson Bay region, what’s far more common is that bears go onto the ice to hunt seals this time of year.

“It could be that [when] this attack happened, maybe this bear was a little hungrier than usual,” McCall told the CBC.

However, climate change is wreaking havoc on the area, changing sea ice patterns, and forcing polar bears further inland, where they often are attracted to the smell of garbage or human food.

McCall also had some potentially lifesaving advice.

“If you’re attacked by a polar bear, definitely do not play dead — that is a myth,” she told the CBC. “Fight as long as you can.”

More on polar bears: Research Finds Polar Bears Can’t Adapt to Longer Summers