These Tourists Were Making a Scene So a Group of Black Bears Showed Them Who's Boss

by N/A, 10 years ago | 1 min read

The video was Filmed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks videographer Winston Greely at Yellowstone National Park over the weekend. It's pretty frightening when you see the actual footage. A bunch of tourists got out of their vehicles when they saw a mother bear with her 3 cubs trying to cross the bridge and then the chaos ensued.Â

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Kerry Gunther, the park's bear management program leader, said, "Ideally, the visitors on the bridge would have stayed in their vehicles...They instead should have grouped together on one side of the bridge and allowed the bears to pass." Watch below:

Gunther went on to say that Yellowstone has never had a bear-caused incident when there are 3 or more people around. But that doesn't mean those people were not in danger. Â Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Communication and Education Program Manager Bob Gibson spoke toÂ NBC newsÂ about the incident saying "these tourists were absolutely in danger.â€

Normally, black bears are shy animals but the mother bear can get really protective of her cubs. Gibson said these cubs were about 13 months old and that had they been younger, this situation could have been deadly.

Gibson and others at Yellowstone National Park warn tourists to stay away from bears especially in the spring and fall when cubs are being born and before they go into hibernation. According to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Facebook page, the bear and her cubs made it safely back into the forest and no one was hurt. But again, they urge visitors to stay in established areas only.Â