In August 2024, 48 year old Sergei Prichinich was entertaining a crowd in Russia while he guided Donut, a nearly 500 lb (227 kg) brown bear, around a cage on a hoverboard.But don’t be fooled by her adorable name and incredible balance. The crowd was loving it, until Donut became agitated, and finally had enough.Sergei used his baton to stop her from biting, and another circus employee outside the cage used a stick to get Donut off her trainer. In an instant, she stopped, and Sergei resumed performing as if nothing had happened.Sergei’s calm demeanor during the attack may have reduced his risk of serious injury. A common phrase regarding bear attacks is, “If it’s brown, lie down.”Playing dead will sometimes lead to a brown bear walking away if it no longer feels you’re a threat. Bears trained to ride hoverboards are still wild and dangerous, meaning they can attack at any moment.And I would NOT want to be chased by a bear on a hoverboard! New nightmare unlocked.In China, this trainer was attacked on December 10, 2023. Although this bear appeared smaller and less powerful than the one that attacked Sergei, it was still a scary sight.The circus tried to downplay the incident, claiming that a child in the audience spilled popcorn, and the bear wanted to eat it, so it attacked. Thankfully, neither the trainer nor the bear were injured, and local media was told that it was properly fed before the performance. Sure it was…But it’s not just hoverboards that seem to upset bears. They don’t like pushing wheelbarrows, either!Yet another trainer in Russia was attacked by its bear mid performance. What makes this incident so insane is that nothing was keeping the audience safe from the bear either.The 660 lb (299 kg) bear named Yashka was muzzled, so it didn’t injure its trainer as much as it could have, but talk about a terrifying situation. I mean, bear claws alone can really mess you up.The circus manager explained that Yashka turned on his trainer because he was startled by the flash from the spectators’ cellphones, which they were told to turn off.Interesting how the circus never takes the blame for these attacks, huh? The bear’s trainer also claimed Yashka became aggressive because the 16 year old had joint pain. Which begs the question, why was it performing?We’ve covered elephants, lions and bears, but we can’t leave out tigers. They’re a staple of the circus. And possibly the most vicious of them all.