A Canadian man and a three-metre, 585-kilogramme Kodiak bear will face off on 9 December, in an attempt to test a handmade, purportedly bear-proof suit.
The suit and its maker, Troy Hurtubise of North Bay, Ontario, won a 1998 Ig Nobel prize for Safety and Engineering and an entry in the 2002 Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive research suit ever constructed.
Fifteen years of tinkering and US$100,000 have gone into the design, which incorporates plastic, rubber, chainmail, galvanised steel, titanium 鈥� and thousands of metres of duct tape.
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The suit has proven itself to be virtually indestructible. It has survived two strikes with a 136-kilogramme tree trunk, 18 collisions with a 3-tonne truck at 50 kilometres an hour, and numerous strikes by arrows, bullets, axes and baseball bats. 鈥淚鈥檝e never had a bruise,鈥� says Hurtubise.
But the suit has never come up against the very thing it is meant to protect against 鈥� a Grizzly bear. On 9 December, in an undisclosed location in western Canada, that will change. In a 鈥渃ontrolled attack鈥�, the Kodiak, a larger, heavier subspecies of the Grizzly, will put it to the test.
Ripped to shreds
The bear, which has appeared on TV commercials and in movies, will be instructed by its handler to attack for 10 seconds. Showbiz aside, Hurtubise stresses that it is a real bear. 鈥淩eal teeth, real claws, real power,鈥� he says.
He fully expects the outside of the suit to be ripped to shreds. 鈥淭he suit鈥檚 a toy to the bear,鈥� he says. 鈥淗e鈥檒l make his way to the titanium.鈥�
Hurtubise is banking on the titanium layers around the chest, head and lower body to protect him. If there鈥檚 a weakness, he says, it鈥檚 the chainmail joints.
Hurtubise says he鈥檚 excited, but a little anxious too. 鈥淟ittle things like trucks and baseball bats and axes and things 鈥� you don鈥檛 feel that,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is a bear.鈥�