Bowhunting alone in the remote Strawberry Mountain Wilderness near John Day last month, Rob Shook heard a noise coming from a nearby ridge.

Thinking it was elk, he walked quietly over the ridge then stopped to rest.

But the noise was coming not from elk but from a female black bear and her three cubs, who were about 50 yards down a hill from Shook.

Having spent time close to bears when he lived in Alaska, the hunter from La Pine was comfortable around the animals, so he did not feel threatened by this chance encounter in Eastern Oregon.

He even took the time to snap a few photos of the bear and her cubs.

But the mother bear, backed against the side of a steep rimrock cliff and seeing her cubs closer to Shook than she was, apparently did feel threatened. Shook said she continued walking up the hill toward him, snarling and growling as she approached.

“Her cubs ran toward the trail I was on,” Shook recalled this week. “She just kept coming. I kept yelling and screaming. She just kept coming.”

Shook, 50 and with 34 years of hunting experience, said he stepped back to retrieve his bow with the approaching bear about 20 yards away, her growls becoming more intense. At 10 yards, he pulled back and released his arrow, striking the bear in the neck. It ran away, then tumbled down the steep hill.

“At 10 yards, I knew she wasn’t going to stop,” Shook said. “I hated to do it. All I could do was aim down my arrow. I’ve never killed a bear in my life. She was meaner than hell. I thought for sure she would leave at first. It’s a horrible feeling. It just made me sick.”

Deep in the wilderness on a planned three-day backpacking and bowhunting trip, Shook hiked out within hours of his encounter with the bear and reported the incident in person the next day at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office in John Day.

It is lawful to hunt male bear in Oregon for hunters with a tag, but killing a female bear is illegal. Exceptions are made if a hunter’s safety is threatened, according to Greg Jackle, an assistant district biologist for the ODFW in John Day.

The day after Shook reported the incident, Jackle accompanied Shook back to the site of the incident.

They found the dead bear, which had tumbled a few hundred feet down the hillside. The arrow had entered through its neck and pierced its heart, according to Jackle.

“It didn’t take long for the bear to expire,” Jackle surmised this week. “It was the only shot (Shook) had, probably.”

Jackle said that Shook appeared to have done nothing wrong. But, the biologist added, if Shook had not spent time taking photos of the bears, perhaps he would not have been forced to shoot the mother bear.

“The time period between his taking pictures and her coming after him, you can’t second-guess, but he should have backed away instead of taking pictures,” Jackle said. “He probably should have made some noise and backed away.”

Jackle said that when hunters or any outdoor enthusiasts encounter a bear, they should make noise and wave their arms while slowly backing away, which Shook said he did. Humans should not make eye contact with a bear in the wild, Jackle added, nor should they run.

Jackle said that most of the time, bears will hear people in the woods and nothing will come of it. But archery hunters, who must be extremely quiet while stalking their prey in order to get close enough to take the animal with a bow, can sometimes surprise a bear or a cougar. Jackle said he believes that is what happened to Shook: He came over a rise and surprised the mother bear with her cubs while she was backed into a corner against the drop-off of rimrock.

Satisfied with Shook’s account of events, Jackle’s concern turned to the deceased bear’s three cubs, which he said could struggle to survive this winter.

“The question mark was with the cubs,” Jackle said. “I went in prepared to euthanize the cubs if we came across them — which is not something I would have liked to have done. I carried a rifle.”

When Jackle and Shook found the dead bear, its cubs were nearby. But they fled when they saw Jackle, and he said he could not relocate them. The fact that the cubs ran away from him is a positive sign, the biologist explained.

“They worked their way away from me, and got away into the brush,” Jackle said. “I was trying to see what they would do, if they were completely tied to their mother. They went to her for protection, but they stayed away from me, so they had that instinct.

“They weren’t just helpless. They were bigger than we thought, and they had that anti-predator response of getting away from me. Hopefully, they have a fighting chance.”

Jackle said the incident — even though it involved a female bear — should serve as a reminder to deer and elk hunters to carry a bear or cougar tag while hunting. Much of the harvest of bears and cougars is incidental, he said.

The ODFW is in the process of generating a black bear population estimate statewide, but the agency’s Web site says the state is home to between 25,000 and 30,000 black bears. Jackle said the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, known for its steep, rugged terrain, is known to be home to some bears.

Jackle added that incidents such as Shook’s are extremely rare, though he has no reason not to believe Shook’s account.

“I want to commend him; he did everything you’re supposed to do (after the animal is shot),” Jackle said. “Leave it where it is and we’ll investigate it.

“If he didn’t have a bow with him, who knows?”