Tom Fenton
A quick-thinking dad has gone viral after managing to save his dog's life after a bear started chasing after it. Watch the incredible footage here:
We've all heard the sage advice that if you are confronted by a bear in the wild, the trick is to make yourself look as big as possible in a bid to scare it off.
One heroic dad put this advice into action in a now-viral video, scaring a black bear away from his home, after it attempted to attack the family dog.
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In the home surveillance footage which captured the incident, we initially see a woman panicking on the phone, as a small Golden Doodle called Salomon runs into frame, looking agitated and afraid.
It soon becomes clear why, as a black bear can be seen chasing after the small dog, who, without intervention, would have been almost helpless up against the much bigger animal.
However, after ushering everyone else back into the house, the father steps outside to seemingly confront the bear, and try and save the terrified hound.
Josh Martinez from Destin, Florida, then proceeds to scare the predator off, making himself look as big as possible, while also shouting in its direction.
With bear attacks are a fairly common occurrence in some parts of the US, it shouldn't be too surprising that Martinez knew just what to do in the heat of the moment.
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However, in this case, the bear really did mess with the wrong household, as they are a US Army Special Forces family - and as such - highly trained for scenarios like these.
"We are an active duty US Army Special Forces family," dad Josh said.
"We were protecting our amazing mini Golden Doodle Salomon and I was protecting my family as the bear came near my family.
"I did what any other father would do to protect their family."
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The video, which was shared to Facebook, soon went viral on the social media site. It now sits on over 5000 likes, and has been commented on hundreds of times by stunned - and impressed - users.
"Papi was obviously a bigger bear. good job papiiii!" one user wrote, while another added: "I think the bear had a heart attack because of the amount of noise it was exposed to".
Some were also keen to credit the bravery of the mother - Aurora - who chased the bear at the start of the video to try and save her dog.
"What about the mother, she literally ran after the dang bear screaming! That was gutsy!" another person commented.
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While the advice varies for bear encounters depending upon the type, when facing down a Black Bear, you are best advised to do exactly what the Martinez family did.
As The Guardian notes, if you do encounter a black bear in the wild: "Dather together, stand tall and make lots of noise," just as Josh did.
Knowing what to do is one thing, implementing it is quite another. Kudos to the Martinez family.