It does not appear that the bear climbed the tree to attack; rather, it climbed the tree because it was trying to avoid a larger bear in the area. It climbed defensively -- and happened to pick the tree that had two humans in it.
The fact that it chose to stay in the tree where it could smell the humans tells me that the climbing bear was more scared of what sent it up the tree in the first place.
What I find fascinating is listening to the sounds the bears make as they come to an uneasy truce about the food.
I've had lots of wild animals close -- a fox walk up and sniff the sole of my boot, all sorts of small birds land on me, squirrels climb my leg, a fawn walk up and touch it's nose to my hand, a herd of deer a few yards away aware something was out of place but could not find me, a red-tail hawk land on the upper part of a climbing tree stand and stay there for 20 minutes -- in each instance it was all I could do to not hyperventilate.
I can't image how it'd feel to have a bear inches away! Wow!
In a separate audio interview, the guide said that the bear probably didn't even know the two were in the trees. It just lit out for the closest tree available to get away from the larger bear. It was probably just as perplexed and frightened to find them in the same tree as it so it backed its ways down.
But those bears move FAST! I couldn't believe how quickly the pair of bears ran up the other trees several yards away.
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