As kids we're taught bears are free videos of a guy finishing sexcute and cuddly creatures. We make them into stuffed animals and give them a cute name. Kids sleep with them.
The reality is that bears are predators capable of killing a human with minimal effort. They do not give a shit about your selfies. Plus, bears getting used to humans can be fatal for bears. They're wild animals that need to stay wild.
Philip de Roo was traveling through Algonquin Park in Canada when he noticed a commotion on the side of the road. A group of over a dozen people stopped their vehicles, got out, and were snapping photos of a black bear a few yards away.
SEE ALSO: Angry bear charging a car is a good reminder to leave bears aloneRoo tells Global News he initially thought they were taking photos of a moose, but nope. It was a bear. (For the record, moose, too, can be aggressive.)
“I was shocked. My mind was blown. I wondered why anyone would want to do that and be that close to an animal out in the open like that, it’s so dangerous,” he told Global News.
Roo stopped his vehicle, and from the safety of his car, he filmed the bear and the tourists, including small children, just a few feet away.
Thankfully, the bear did not attack any of the people snapping photos.
And yes, this is a black bear, which is less dangerous than a grizzly, but still very capable of killing a human. Though deaths by black bears are rare, they have killed more than 60 humans since 1900. Two people were killed by black bears in Alaska just last month.
Jolanta Kowalski, senior media relations officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, backed up Roo's concerns that coming close to bears is a really bad idea.
“These are wild animals and can be unpredictable. When humans get close to wildlife the animal starts to lose its fear of people; which puts both people and the animal in danger. Taking a selfie photo isn’t worth the risk,” Kowalski said in the statement.
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