Bear Bites Sleeping Hunter's Head At Midnight

He never dreamt that he would be the hunted, not the hunter.

That is why Stephen Vouch, 29 years old, a "hunter" on a camp with friends in Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, was suddenly awoken at midnight by a black bear.

At first he just felt something tugging at his hair, and put his hand behind his head, touching a wet object. When he realised that it was a bear, he yelled.

"He got a hold of my head, and that's what woke me up," said Vouch Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. "That's when I kind of freaked out. That's when I could hear the bear breathing on me."

The scream made the bear spring up and hit the roof of the tent, which then collapsed and fell on top of all the friends and the bear inside.

His friend then fired a .45-caliber handgun at the bear, which then made the wounded fellow clamber onto a tree, according to U.S. News & World Report. Vouch then shot and killed it.

The friends gave him some first aid, rafted downstream and then flew away in order to get some medical help.

Vouch got treatment for the cuts in his head, and was then released from the hospital, according to the Japan Times.

The incident has created worries for the Idaho Fish and Game officials, who are not too clear as to why the bear came inside the tent in the first place. Most bears find food from campers, but this team had stored its provisions properly, so it was puzzling that the bear had smelt out something. One viewpoint is that perhaps the bear had thought that the hair was some prey's fur.

Still, Vouch wants to return to the hunt in order to harvest the single Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep that he is allowed to shoot in his lifetime, according to local rules.