London, Dec 21 : Most people will dread the idea of facing a bear, but a 68-year old retired schoolteacher has actually found solace in befriending an 8ft-tall grizzly bear and other black bears.

Daredevil Charlie Vandergaw, who lives around bears, is convinced that the bears, weighing up to 500lbs when fully grown, are his friends.

“They’re such big, powerful creatures. They could break my neck with one slap. If they wanted to attack me, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But they don’t want to, ” The Sun quoted him, as saying.

“Just to see someone get that close to the grizzlies seems insane, but it’s like taking something out of context.

“You have to see the whole thing — you have to understand the number of years of experience I have. I think you can prevent an attack situation just by being observant.

“Saying all of that, I could get chewed on tomorrow, ” he added.

Astonishingly, Vandergaw used to kill bears for sport, but it was while hunting them that he fell in love with the amazing animals.

“Every time I saw a bear it was a little bit more exciting than the time before. The mystique of bear hunting is that you’re hunting a huge, dangerous predator, ” he said.

“But the more I was around bears, the more I realised there was something more there than a vicious wild animal, ” he added.

Vandergaw lives in cabin called Bear Haven, which is 70 miles from the nearest road in the wilds of Alaska’s Yentna River Valley, so that he could be near the bears.

There he feeds, cuddles and even rubs noses with the bears. Sometimes he lets the younger ones come inside. (ANI)