Jon Johnson and wife Georgia Ann Field fought off a bear and cub that broke into their home using bare fists and a baseball bat (Pictures: KDVR/AP(File))

A shocked couple had a bizarre fist fight with a mother bear and her cub after the animals broke into their home.

Jon Johnson, 71, and wife Georgie Ann Field were watching TV on a lower level of their home in Pine, Colorado, on Monday when they heard noises coming from upstairs.

Johnson went up to investigate – and was stunned to be confronted by a huge mother bear, who began attacking him.

He fought back – in what Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials branded a human-bear ‘boxing match.’


Johnson managed to land several blows on the bear, while Fields whacked it with a baseball bat.

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After several blows, the mother and her cub fled through the same screen door they’d used to break in to the couple’s home.



Johnson told KDVR: ‘George Ann got behind and hit her with the bat, which is why the head print is in the wall…

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‘(She) is a real hero. If I had to take it on myself I probably wouldn’t have been able to…

‘When it was growling, I was growling, so between the two of us we were having attitudes.

Johnson was left badly scratched on his face, chest and arms, but did not require hospital treatment.

The bear got in through an upper level in the couple’s house… (Picture: KDVR)

…and left this huge hole in their wall after being whacked by a baseball bat (Picture: KDVR)

His wife escaped injury.

Rangers began searching for the bears immediately using a dog, and tracked them down in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The animal was killed around 900 yards from the home she’d broken into, in accordance with a local policy stipulating bears who attack and injure humans must be euthanized.

A DNA sample has been sent to confirm it is the same bear which attacked Johnson.

Officials were unable to track down her cub.

Bears become more brazen in their quest for food as the autumn approaches and they try to eat as much as possible before hibernating for winter.