One thing that struck me was the bear never made a sound throughout the whole encounter (which probably lasted no more than thirty seconds); even as it headed away it was silent...
In an incident that aroused a lot of discussion, about five years ago a young, male bear ran into a public park in La Crosse where people were picnicking. (how's that for alliteration?) The bear was spooked by all the people and ran up a tree. The local DNR was called out. After a short period of discussion the DNR people thought the best thing to do for the safety of the people involved (who were still watching the bear up the tree) was to shoot the bear.
Many people were angry and wanted to know why the DNR people didn't try to tranquilize the bear. The reason: they didn't have a tranquilizer gun, and they thought if the bear got down it might hurt people. Nevertheless, many people thought they should not have killed the bear. But I wonder what they would have said if the bear got down the tree and attacked and killed a child.