When people describe the protective mother instinct they often refer to someone being a "mother bear". Mother bears are extremely protective around their cubs and everyone knows to be very careful around a new bear family. A 69 yr. old man from California was also very aware of this so he made sure he allowed plenty of room when he watched a family of bears while on a hike recently. He had seen these bears before and enjoyed watching them as he was an avid hiker of this area. He felt completely safe from where he stood. He couldn't have been more wrong.

It wasn't from the bears though that his life was in danger but rather from a ferocious mountain lion who had been stalking him on the trail. As he turned to begin walking again the lion pounced, grabbed him from behind and knocked him to the ground. Now on his knees the only thing that was keeping him alive was the backpack he wore. He managed to pick up his rock pick and hit the lion on the head with it but it did little to stop the him from being attacked.

As he tried to hit the lion again with the rock pick he was all of a sudden aware of large blur to the left of him. He heard lots of growling and a very loud screeching sound coming from the lion. It was a this point that he realized that the mama bear had grabbed the mountain lion by the throat and they were both fighting tooth and nail for about 15 seconds. The lion quickly realized it was out matched by the bear by about 300 lbs. and took off into the brush.

As the bear went back down on all four feet, she humbly made eye contact with the hiker before returning to her youngsters. The hiker was very fortunate to have only some scratches and bruises from the whole ordeal. But he has been forever touched by the lifesaving efforts from the mama bear on that fateful day. In his words he explains what he knows in his heart to be true, "I'm 100-percent sure it did want to save my life," he said. "We made eye contact. I'd seen the bears before and I know she knew who I was."