I have not, and would not, let any bear come up and touch any part of me - even if he was smiling the whole time...
Those ears, yes, definitely bad body language, but I feel it was more the stress caused by the encounter he had just had prior, instead of the one with the people. I feel like the body language prior to the approach, and the immediate checking of his six, broadcast a bad encounter with another bear...he was right next to cover, and chose not to enter it and avoid the human confrontation - and I feel (don't know as I was not there) that was for a reason. They may not be scared of much of anything, but they haven't shown me that they are frivolous with their own hides when it comes to each other, either. I'd be interested to see if others chime in.
I would venture to say, that even if a bear wasn't running at me on purpose, and was instead running FROM something else, I wouldn't want to be the object that cut off his exit..they can shift the focus of their discontent pretty quick. And by that I mean mighty quick. And that's an understatement.
I have been different situations counting salmon streamside (work), and fishing (not work) and had them come over a rise in my direction for many reasons. Even the ones that were hightailing it from a more dominant bear, or the ones who were just after the fish in the hole and didn't know I was there until we both got a surprise - scared the you know what out of me, and those bears keep your quick draw abilities ahh...'sharper'.
