Fight, Flight, or play dead?

From CBC:

B.C. bear sniffs man from head to toe

Man played dead while bear inspected him

Riley Teufel, 19, says he was walking along South Alder Street when he heard some rustling in the bushes.

He then saw the bear walking towards him.

“I could tell it wasn't going to go away, so I thought the best thing to do was play dead,” he said.

So he lay on the ground while the bear sniffed him from head to toe for several terrifying minutes.

Teufel says he'll always remember the smell of the animal.

“Garbage and poo and just everything nasty put together…. It was just not a good smell — just a wretched smell,” he said.

Fortunately for Teufel, the curious bear was scared off by a driver who honked his car horn.


via http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2011/08/30/bc-vancouver-island-bear-encounter.html