How do you protect yourself from quick and intense bear attack like this?

.40 caliber ammo. :p. Sorry I couldn’t resist.

I, myself, stay the hell away from bears. That said most animals bears included generally just want to be left alone. In an event where a bear is on you I would think something like bear spray if you could get to it would be your best bet to possibly get the animal to back off and buy you a second or two.
 
Assuming you've done all the proper bear proofing things like keeping foods out of the tent etc. the only other option is to sleep with a handgun very close. Not a guarantee, but about the only option. Mine stays inside the sleeping bag with me.
 
Don't prepare food or eat near your camp site, hang all of your food in a bear bag well away from your campsite. Waking up to a bear in your tent is a very tough situation to respond to.
 
There are things that are out of our control, and stressing about them does not do any good.

Store your food away, have a firearm and bear spray within reach, have some sort of emergency contact, and live life.

The same could be said for driving, swimming, going out to public places, etc. You can mitigate the risk, but not eliminate it.

The bear might not get you but something else will. Life is 100% lethal.
 
Your best defense is probably having a dog with you. You’re not likely to ever hear a bear before an attack occurs. I was sitting on my camp porch yesterday just looking out over the front “yard” at nothing in particular while I was eating my lunch. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and looked to my right. I had a very large black bear next to the deck about ten feet from me and he never made a sound walking in. I thought he smelled my lunch (probably did) but he didn’t pay any attention to it or me. He stood up and looked in the direction I was looking and then dropped back down on all fours and walked down my driveway. I see bear quite often at my place and I only ever recall hearing one approaching maybe twice. They are simply like ghosts. I’ve had them brush up against my blind several times while I was in it and keep on walking by. If any of them ever really wanted to get me, I wouldn’t be typing this now. Dogs kill about sixty people in this country every year. Bears kill about one person every three years. You’re not likely to ever be attacked by a bear, but you’re very likely to get stung by a bee and die, attacked by a dog, or bitten by a rabid raccoon. If you’re really afraid of bear attacks, stay out of the places where they live. They rule in their environment.
 
No food in your sleeping tent.

Food prep and storage away from your sleeping tent.

Garbage burn pit at least 100 yards from your sleeping tent.

And a gun you are well trained with, suitable for stopping bear in your tent.
 
How do you protect yourself from quick and intense bear attack like this?
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"Like this" is you sound asleep in your tent in the middle of nowhere in pitch black dark. The bear rips through your tent and eats you.

I don't think there is any protection given the above criteria.
 
In a case like that, either a perimeter warning system or dog(s). Warning system might not scare away the bear; although car alarms sure do, dogs, big ones, will scare away most bears. But not all bears.

My Mals are great at scaring grizzlies, but I'm sure if the grizzly wanted to it could kill the dogs in seconds.

But you won't have time to grab the gun unless early warning and bear spray might not be a great idea inside a tent (works outside, but inside?).

Best thing to do if bears are scary, stay out of bear country; especially, in those states with large numbers of big bears like AK, MT, WY, ID....

Good thing is, there are not that many when you consider how many bears there are in certain areas and how many potential meals are walking around, oblivious to their surroundings.

I'm still amazed how many people I see walking in camping areas or on hiking trails in NE WY (just east of Yellowstone/west of Cody) not carrying bear spray or a weapon of any kind. That area is full of grizzlies (and some blacks and big cats). I would bet if the majority could get service they would also be texting at the same time.

And considering how many people are in that area during spring-through fall...
 
Worth pointing out that both victims survived, and were able to canoe themselves out for medical treatment. If the bear actually wanted to kill them it would have been a different story.
 
How do you protect yourself from quick and intense bear attack like this?
Bear attack quick and intense.
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First thing you do is get rid of the misconceptions. The attack was quick and intense? More than likely, the bear was nosing around the campsite and tent for several minutes. It didn't rush out of the woods and body slam the tent at full speed. That would be quick and intense. More than likely, it did what bears do and sniff around the tent and then slowly start collapsing the tent to see what was inside and/or how to get inside and when the occupants starting screaming, then the scary stuff started happening. When you are asleep, lots can go on before you know what is happening. When you wake up with a bear on top of you, it appears to have happened suddenly, when in fact it was minutes or 10s of minutes in the making. What I am saying is that the quick part of it is misleading. Once the screaming part started, no doubt it got intense. Sounds like the bear reacted in a surprised manner, beat the crap out of the occupants, and ran off.

Bottom line, the bear surprised the campers and the campers surprised the bear and the bear reacted in what sounds like a typical manner. This does not appear to be a predatory attack where the bear was there to eat the people, otherwise, this story likely would have been much different.

How to protect against this? Several ways. Simple trip wire alarms around camp would have at least notified the occupants that their perimeter was being breached by a larger creature. Not having both occupants asleep at the same time would have been really prudent. One outside the tent tending a fire as the other slept probably would have been a really good idea.

I am sorry, but people are just naive and ignorant. They were camping, SLEEPING in bear country with nothing to shield them from bears or wolves other than thin fabric, which is no protection at all.
 
Thousands and thousands of people sleep in bear country every day. Ontario and New England have high bear populations and all the campers, canoeist, kayaker, etc don’t go to any extra steps to prepare for bear attacks at night. It’s not that they are naive, or ignorant. It’s just that bear attacks like this are very, very rare. For those of you who live in the Southwest, you simply have no conception of how popular places are in the North and in Canada, are for back country activities. Being harassed by a bear is pretty common if you leave food in camp, but being attacked in your tent is probably the result of having food in your tent. I had a very large male bear destroy a ground blind I was hunting turkey in one time because I had food in my backpack. I could have shot the bear, but he was doing what bears do best....looking for food. I exited the backside while he came in the front. He beat the stuffings out of my backpack looking for the sandwich I’d just eaten. I suspect the injured parties in this case had food in there with them.
 
Above are some serious and useful tactics for bear defense.

Below is neither.
Best bear defense might be "distraction".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvIamfRRKK0

It's been posted before but I really like it.

I also like a cartoon I saw where the campers have hung their food high in a tree and the bear is poking the sleeping campers awake then points to the food in the tree and says, "You think that's funny?" An alternate caption someone thought up was the bear saying, "Well since I can't get at that, you're on the menu."
 
Assertively tell the bear, in an elevated tone of voice:
"Stop, that is not nice!" (emphasis on the "not")

Give a warning:
"If you do not change your behavior I'll have to ring my bear bell"

Give the bear choices too:
"You can either leave the tent right now or stay and let us exit through the rear window zipper"

That oughta do it.
 
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