How in the year of our Lord 2026 are people still walking right up to bears in the wild to take photos and videos? The latest example of the inexplicable stupidity took place at Mount Rainier National Park.
The national park in Washington state (the west-central portion) is home to an estimated 200 to 300 black bears. There are actually no grizzly bears or brown bears within Mount Rainier, and surprisingly, there has never been a reported black bear attack in the history of the national park.
Despite some tourists doing everything they can to become a bear attack victim.
I’m starting to think that people are getting close to wildlife in national parks just so they show up on Whiskey Riff’s outdoors page. If that’s the reasoning behind all of this, good job, because it’s working. But also… bad job, because you shouldn’t be endangering your life to get close to a wild bear.
In this clip from Mount Rainier National Park, a black bear is minding its own business by the side of the road when people start to confuse the national park for a petting zoo. I’m assuming that, somehow, these people walking up to the black bear don’t realize that bears are considering apex predators, and though they aren’t overly aggressive towards humans (especially in Mt Rainier), they can be if they are provoked.
This footage, which was captured by Instagram user “Chelseajin_12,” could probably be considered a textbook example of what not to do around black bears in the wild. People are walking right up to it and crowding it, individuals are taking pictures and selfies with the wild animal, and no one seems at all alarmed by the mere feet that separate them and the bear. Tourists are actually supposed to stay at least 100 yards away from bears while visiting national parks.
These people were barely five feet away:
There’s just something about people walking into a national park that makes them leave behind all their common sense.
Fortunately, the bear was very occupied with the greenery just off the trail, and never seemed to show much concern for the people that were gathering around it. Shoutout to some of the people further back on the walkway for leaving plenty of distance between them and the wild animal. They knew what they were doing… while everyone else a couple steps away from the black bear did not.
And they got roasted in the comment section for it:
“The trail just looks like one long charcuterie board to the bear.”
“This is why we have more bear attacks. Anyone going into bear country needs to be trained on bear safety and awareness.”
“Everyone that close should be banned from the National Park for life.”
“Back up and give the bear space. Nature is their home. We are just visitors.”
“If you get attacked because you want a fun TikTok with a cute bear it’s your own fault.”
“You just stay far away from them, preferably the length of football field. At least 300 ft – unless you desire to be hamburger meat.”
Maybe that’s what the national parks should start putting on their signs.
