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What should you actually do if you encounter a bear?

Bear safety expert Dr Tom Smith says best not to run unless you're the best Olympic runner.

Workers at Taste by Spellbound in Avon, Connecticut, were shocked by an uninvited customer. A black bear wandered into the bakery's garage and ate 60 cupcakes that were being loaded into a delivery van. The incident was captured on video and has since gone viral.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Outside Source has been speaking to Dr Tom Smith, bear safety expert and professor of Wildlife Sciences at Brigham Young University in Utah, United States. So what should people do when they come face-to-face with a bear?

"You never go out without a deterrent, you have to have some way to turn a bear," says Dr Smith, adding: "In the States, you can purchase bear spray."

"Another simple thing is hike with somebody else... they [bears] are kind of risk-evaluators, they see two or more people and its like, this is an unfair fight I'm leaving," says Dr Smith.

And what advice does he have for people tempted to run?

"I think the best Olympic runner could almost outrun a bear, but none of you are that person, so just forget it," he says.

(Photo: North American black bear Phoenix in the drive-through enclosure at Woburn Safari Park, UK. Credit: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

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4 minutes