This video is incredible. Mostly because it shows the incredible stupidity of an incredibly large number of humans as they encounter a black bear family.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks videographer Winston Greely recently captured images of black bear sow and her cubs. Dozens of people – including children and the elderly – hang around seemingly oblivious to the creatures. Some use the encounter as a photo-op. Meanwhile, someone is shouting “Keep going. Go!” as the mother bear begins to charge the crowd.
This happened near Gardiner and, as parks officials rightly point out, “it serves as a reminder that wildlife can be unpredictable. For your safety and theirs, respect wildlife and give them room to roam.”
Stay in your vehicles. Watch from sanctioned observation areas. Don’t do anything to stress the animals out.
“Luckily, no one was hurt and these bears made it safely back to the forest,” parks said.
Which, given the behaviour of most of the people in the videos, is nothing short of miracle. More than 1.4-million people have now viewed it on Facebook since it was posted May 8 and tens of thousands more on YouTube.
