Park rangers were not impressed with the actions of a recent park visitor who leapt into the road, right in front go a grizzly bear to snap a photo. The bear had just crossed the road when the man jumped out to get a shot of the bear running uphill.
Yellowstone “enthusiast” Julia Cook caught the incident on camera and shared the image with the social media profile, TouronsOfNationalParks. The Facebook and Instagram page is dedicated to showcasing bad behavior of national park visitors.
Cook’s image shows how dangerously close this man was to the powerful grizzly, a distance the bear could have closed in seconds.
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In another recent close call with a bear in Yellowstone National Park recently, Tourons of Yellowstone shared a video of a young, curious black bear who was smelling some tourist vehicles parked on the side of the road.
The video, captured by @waxman80, shows several tourists out of their vehicles getting a closer look at the bear. One of the tourists out of their vehicle was a young child.
When the bear began approaching the young boy, a nearby adult quickly moved the child inside a nearby vehicle.
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Unfortunately this is not the only recent close encounter with a black bear. One man decided to approach a mother black bear with two cubs to snap some photos.
In the video, captured by @riley.krantz, the mother black bear was unaware of the man, but if she had been, the incident could have been deadly.
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Attacks on humans do not happen often, but they do happen. Just last month, a woman was mauled to death by a grizzly bear just outside of Yellowstone National Park when she was hiking alone in the woods.
Despite their size and stature, bears can move extremely fast and can sprint up to 40 mile per hour. In this video, capture from @aaron_teasdale and share to the profile Tourons of Yellowstone, you can see how quickly a bear can move and see through the camera was it is like to be charged by a bear.
This video was taken during the relocation of a 22-year old male grizzly in the Whitefish Range in Northern Montana.
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All wildlife in and around Yellowstone are unpredictable. It is crucial to check your surroundings and to keep a safe distance from all wildlife. The best place to view wildlife is from your vehicle.
These videos are a reminder to stay bear aware while in nature. National Park Service advises that people stay at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves to avoid conflict, and 25 yards away from animals such as bison and elk.
