When you’re wandering out and about in the wilderness, there’s only a handful of things you can find that are completely harmless, and yet, somehow very frightening. One of those… bear cubs.
Why? Because on their own, bear cubs are completely harmless… like little puppies. But wherever there are bear cubs, there is usually a protective mama bear who is willing to rip heads off at the slightest inkling of a perceived threat.
These Virginia shed hunters found that out first hand when heard the cries of some of the smallest black bear cubs you’re ever going to find. These cubs look to be a only a few days old, and while it’s a pretty rare and incredible encounter to stumble upon newborn bears cubs, nobody (who knows better) wants to be that close.
According to Cowboy State Daily, Zach Adams was out with a buddy on the hunt for squirrel and some shed antlers in central Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains when they heard the sound of some high-pitched squealing. Upon further investigation, it turned out to be two newborn black bear cubs. Lucky for them, mama bear was very young, and quite small, so she took off rather than charging towards them.
He says:
“Me and my friend decided it was a good day to get outside to hunt squirrels and maybe find some sheds. We had gotten maybe 150, 160 yards from the buggy when we started hearing something that at first I thought was a hawk screeching.
All of the sudden, I heard ‘Crash! Crash! Crash!’ coming from the far side, and I had now idea what it was. And then my friend just started hollering ‘Oh damn, oh s***, oh f***!’ And I yelled ‘What is it?’ And he yelled back, ‘It’s a f***** bear!’”
He said that the mama bear was really young and small, and that the cubs were much smaller than you’d even realize:
“I don’t think even the video gets across just how small they were. They could have easily fit right inside your hand… Everything ended well. Mama bear came back… had it been a 4- or 5-year-old sow, she could have come straight at me through that briar patch.”
Heck of an encounter… gotta have that head on a swivel in bear country.
