Australian actress opens up about her terrifying encounter with a black bear while on a run: 'I did the exact opposite of what you are meant to do'
The 37-year-old Vampire Diaries star, who lives in the US, shared how she was on a fitness run when she came across the native American animal.
Posting video and snaps of her frightening experience to social media on Thursday, the Brisbane-born actress admitted she ran for her life upon spotting the creature.
Despite the terrifying encounter, the Brisbane-born actress appeared to have a sense of humour about the situation upon escaping unharmed.
'The moment my zone 2 run turned to a zone 5,' she said, captioning a clip of the bear turning and racing toward her - with 'zone' levels in running referring to the intensity of the training.
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She also shared another photo of the bear running in her direction with the caption, 'Sharks, bees, BEARS'.
Claire added a third photo in which she can be seen brandishing an epinephrine injector device like it was a knife, with the caption, 'Guess I could have stabbed him with my new Epipen.'
In her final photo, Claire admitted she ignored the safety advice regarding bears.
According to the US National Park Service, humans who encounter bears should not run away, since the creatures chase fleeing animals.
'I did exactly the opposite of what you're meant to do and sprinted in the other direction as fast as my little Hokas would carry me,' she said.
Claire also included a selfie showing off her Hoka brand running shoes.
The upbeat actress launched her career at 18 in 2006 as the star of popular Channel Ten teen fantasy drama H2O: Just Add Water, and later left Australia to work in the US.
She subsequently appeared in the American TV movie Mean Girls 2 and the drama Pretty Little Liars.
Claire won a wider audience as one of the stars of The Vampires Diaries, which originated with the CW Channel in the US in 2009.
In 2019, she announced she had become a US citizen after tying the knot with Andrew Joblon the year before.
The pair welcomed their third child, Fiord, a boy, in 2023.
Claire and her husband also share son James, six, and a daughter Elle, five.
This is the second marriage for the actress, who wed her first husband, US producer Matt Kaplan, in 2016.
But the pairing was brief, with the couple filing for divorce the following year.
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The Guardian
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The Guardian
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