Yellowstone Flashback: When Black Bears Chased the Tourists

I would love to say this is an oldie but a goodie. Unfortunately, it's not good. It's that time several years ago when Yellowstone was once again made famous because of tourists doing dumb things around wildlife.

The date of this incident was May 11, 2015. A mother black bear and cubs are making their way across a bridge in Yellowstone National Park. Despite the National Park Service pleas to the public about staying a safe distance away from wildlife, over a dozen tourists got out of their vehicles and even crossed the bridge to take pictures of this bear family.

It's hard to believe, but the situation got even worse. After getting pics, selfies or whatever, the tourists then turned their backs on the bears and casually walked back across the bridge to their vehicles. Little did they know, the bears decided to follow.

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The person who captured the video recorded what happened next. It was a mad scramble of tourists running for their lives from the mama bear. I'm not an expert at reading bear emotions, but it looks like even she is amazed at the stupidity being displayed by the fleeing humans.

25 yards from most wildlife and at least 100 yards from predators like bears and/or wolves is what the National Park Service recommends when you're visiting any national park. It's just common sense, but then again it doesn't appear this crowd back in 2015 had any of that handy.