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yup. For grizzly. NOT for black bears. "If it's black, fight back".
That applies if a black bear pursues and makes physical contact. This bear, no matter which species it happened to be, wasn't interested in the tourists, wasn't defensive, wasn't seeing them as a source of anything. The last thing they should do under these circumstances is attack it for no reason!
We don't know what happened before, but what we may be seeing is some idiots that purposely pulled up to a bear approaching them and pulled out there cell phone cameras. I see no backpacks on these guys, one looks like he has a day pack, so I assume they just jumped out of the car from the paved parking place they were on. I don't see this as being a chance encounter, park police should have arrested them. That being said, I am told bears in Katmai are very used to humans.
Staying calm is fine. But contrary to what you said - you should make noise! Not scream when you see the bear, but announce your presence in bear country so that you don't get a bear encounter like this. They should be backing away from the bear slowly, and they had plenty of chance to do that.
If they wanted to see bears in the natural habitat, eating fish, Katmai has viewing sights on the river. They would have been rewarded with a much more dramatic video.
We don't know what happened before, but what we may be seeing is some idiots that purposely pulled up to a bear approaching them and pulled out there cell phone cameras. I see no backpacks on these guys, one looks like he has a day pack, so I assume they just jumped out of the car from the paved parking place they were on. I don't see this as being a chance encounter, park police should have arrested them. That being said, I am told bears in Katmai are very used to humans.
Staying calm is fine. But contrary to what you said - you should make noise! Not scream when you see the bear, but announce your presence in bear country so that you don't get a bear encounter like this. They should be backing away from the bear slowly, and they had plenty of chance to do that.
If they wanted to see bears in the natural habitat, eating fish, Katmai has viewing sights on the river. They would have been rewarded with a much more dramatic video.
The time of year plays into it too. In late summer brown/grizzly bears are hyper focused on packing on fat for winter. It is actually a physiological shift that ramps up their ability to accumulate fat and alters their behavior. They will tolerate approaches and close proximity to other bears and animals (may include humans) they normally wouldn't. It is one reason you can see multiple bears foraging in the same salmon spawning areas of major rivers. At other times of year those same bears would either be chasing other food competitors away or sizing them up as potential dinners.
Last edited by Parnassia; 08-17-2021 at 02:01 PM..
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