In the Japanese woods, a runner wrestles a bear: “My arm was done in one bite.”

In Myoko, Japan, Billy Halloran is familiar with the woods; he frequently hikes, runs, and even competed in an ultramarathon through its untamed environment. However, he was fleeing for his life in the same woods two weeks prior after a bear attacked him.

In early October, while out on one of his usual runs, Halloran spotted two Asiatic black bears, something he had never seen before. He realized he was in trouble right away. Japan has seen an increase in bear attacks, with at least seven people killed and over 100 injured so far this year—the most since records began in 2006. His home is only a few kilometers away from one recent horrific incident.

The two bears were glaring at him from bushes less than 30 meters away, and he was now alone on the route, kilometers from where he had parked his car, thinking about how to get away. The 32-year-old, who is originally from Auckland, New Zealand, claimed that one bear started to approach him when he attempted to quietly back away. He claimed that it was an adult, around my size, and weighed at least 60 or 70 kilograms (132 to 154 pounds).

Fearing it would pursue and leap on him from behind, Halloran chose not to run. Instead, he shouted in an attempt to frighten it away. “I saw that it would leap at me, and it did.” “And it grabbed my arm, and I got pulled to the ground,” Halloran recalled when he raised his arm in front of his face.
“My arm was done in a single bite.”

The bear then attacked his leg, scratching and puncturing it with its claws before retreating. Halloran was able to jump up on adrenaline and then had a brief “standoff” with the bear before it vanished back into the jungle.

Halloran contacted his wife to come and get him because he was afraid it could return. He ran a kilometer to meet her and wait for an ambulance despite having a fractured arm and a severely damaged leg.

He told CNN from the hospital where he has been recuperating for the past two weeks after undergoing three surgeries, including the placement of metal plates in his arm and a hip graft to replace a piece of bone that had been bitten off.