A group of anglers spotted a black bear on Kettle and Stony Point First Nation over the weekend.
Rudy Bressette Jr. said he was headed to the lake with his brother and nephew, when something across the road caught his eye.
"I told my brother 'that looked like a bear!' And I said 'speed up!' So he sped up and as he was going along there I got my phone ready, stuck it out the window and pushed record and sure enough, the bear was standing in the weeds there looking at us. Soon as it seen us, it kind of took off running into the bushes."
Bressette said the three of them were in awe.
"We were like 'wow, what an amazing thing seeing this bear here in our homeland.' It was just an awesome experience because it's not everyday you see bears down this way."
Bressette said they got within 60 to 70 yards of the bear, and that it probably weighed over 250 pounds.
"It looked pretty big from what we seen. The pictures and the video that I took, they don't do it justice because people are like 'it looks like a small bear,' well yeah, in the video, but when we seen it in person, it was pretty huge."
Bressette said he used to live further north in Rama First Nation, where bear sightings were much more common.
"[But] my brother had never seen a bear before and neither did my nephew, and to witness it when them guys it was just awesome."
Bressette said his late grandfather had his own run-in with a bear on Aazhoodena while he was berry picking. Bressette said that his grandfather had always believed there were bears in the area.
Senior Media Relations Advisor for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Jolanta Kowalski said it's rare to see bears in this part of the province.
"We usually get one or two every couple of years. You do get the occasional bear calls to our bear wise reporting line, and so far this year, there have only been six bear reports listed for all of Alymer and Guelph districts, which is a huge geographic area."
Kowalski said they did receive one call about the bear at Kettle and Stony Point. She also expressed how bears can make quite the trek to get to southwestern Ontario.
"We likely think that they come along south along the shore of Lake Huron or through agricultural areas."
Kowalski said if you encounter a bear, slowly back away, don't approach it and seek shelter if possible. She said if the bear doesn't leave, wave your arms and make noise.
To view the video, click here (contains foul language).