Of all the close calls with wildlife, this old man walking along the sidewalk oblivious to the black bear stalking him might be the closest of them all.
It’s estimated that 600,000 to 900,000 black bears live in North America, and in certain parts of the continent, residents have to always be on alert and keep an eye out for bears. In British Columbia, there are believed to be over 150,000 black bears, and they are the ones that most commonly have encounters with people living in the area.
Most of the time, you’d prefer to have an encounter with a black bear from a distance. The farther away you stay from a wild bear, the better. There’s also the hope that if you don’t mess with a bear, they won’t mess with you. But as you’ll see in this video, that’s not always the case.
Bears tend to be pretty nosy creatures, and though they have been known to get violent when provoked (or if their cubs are messed with), they’re usually just curious. And sometimes that means getting into a little trouble, in most cases because they are searching for food. That’s normally the main cause for any bear interacting with humans, and the sack lunch this older man was carrying looks to be the real reason this bear was stalking him.
Nearby citizens felt helpless as they tried to warn the man – who seemed to be hard of hearing – walk along the side walk. It’s unclear whether the bear was already there when the man walked by, or if the wild animal had followed him from wherever he came from, but regardless… the elderly fellow was in harm’s way, and didn’t even know it.
Those across the street continued to warn the man, and even tried to convince him to walk across the street towards them as they yelled, “RIGHT BEHIND YOU!” When their warnings weren’t getting through to the old man, they started clapping and making other loud noises in an attempt to scare the bear away. But it was dialed in to the paper sack that the guy was walking with, and eventually, the old man did turn to see the apex predator following closely behind him.
Here’s how it all played out:
What a terrifying situation… that somehow ended up with no one getting hurt.
The poor old man had no idea the black bear was behind him, and after he did make that discovery, there wasn’t much he could do. He just kept walking along on the side walk, and eventually, the black bear miraculously abandoned the pursuit and turned away.
Social media users that have viewed the viral video couldn’t help but point out that the older gentlemen did seem to speed up just a tad after seeing the black bear mere feet away from him:
“At first he was walking 1 mph, then he saw the bear started walking 1.1 mph.”
“He’s literally carrying a bagged lunch. Bear was so close to being in maul mode.”
“Did he go, ‘Oh a bear’ and keep walking, as if it was another day?”
That’s what I heard the old man say, but hey… his strategy seemed to work. Apparently ignoring bears and continuing on with your day is one of the best ways to avoid an attack.
