Have you ever seen the perfect, real world example of a living nightmare?
Prepare yourself, because you are about to when you press play on this clip out of Katmai National Park. The beautiful landscape of the famous Alaskan National Park often acts as the backdrop for terrifying footage like this, where tourists had no choice but to step off of a path and hope a brown bear didn’t maul them.
If you didn’t know, there are different ways to go about bear encounters, and there’s even a fun, twisted rhyme to help you remember your best plan of action:
“If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, goodnight.”
Please don’t hold us to that guidance. I just wanted to present it within the story because I felt like it was relevant. I’ve never personally tested out the accuracy of the morbid “how to handle bears” rhyme.
But in this video, the saying does seem to ring true. Tourists on the path located in Katmai National Park came face-to-face with a brown bear, and instead of running, or seeking shelter (like you might instinctively try to do), they instead chose to stay put and stay still.
As the bruin waltzes down the pathway, one man in the group can be heard practicing the other “bear self defense” method of speaking in a deep voice:
“Hey big boy. Hey big boy. Hey bear. Hey bear. Hey bear.”
It might seem silly, but that’s one of things you are supposed to do if you suddenly find yourself in close proximity to one of these intimidating apex predators. Raising your hands high above your head and saying in a guttural tone “hey bear” is a tried and true method in desperate times.
As you’ll see, the bear initially walked past the group of people, and then came to a stop once it came to a fork in the path. Strangely enough, it looks like the brown bear checked out the sign that was located at the divide of the trail, as if it was trying to figure out which direction to go.
Once it gets done looking at the sign (which has a picture of a bear on it), the bruin turns back around and walks right back the way it came in initially. I can’t imagine what the people standing on the edge of the trail were thinking as the massive bear walked back by, though I’m sure afterwards they were all very thankful that everything stayed as peaceful as possible.
Check out the terrifying footage below:
