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Rangers at Yellowstone National Park are investigating an incident that could have easily turned grisly.
Viral video from May 10 shows an unidentified woman approaching a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs at the park’s Roaring Mountain. The video ― posted by witness Darcie Addington, who did not know the woman ― shows the woman holding up her phone, apparently taking photos of the bears.
The mother bear runs towards her, and the woman turns and quickly walks away. Voices in the background can be heard saying “holy fuck” and “oh my god.”
Other people around had warned the woman that she was too close to the bears, Addington told USA Today.
“It was terrifying,” she said.
Yellowstone is trying to identify the woman, the park said in an Instagram post in which it asked anyone with relevant information to contact the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch.
In an unrelated incident, a man hiking solo in Yellowstone was hospitalized after a bear mauled him on Friday.
For the safety of both humans and bears, NPS asks park visitors to stay at least 100 yards from bears at all times, never feed them, and never approach them to take a photo.
Visitors inappropriately approaching wildlife for photo ops is a perennial issue. In 2015, multiple people were injured by bison at Yellowstone, including at least three who were gored or lifted into the air after getting close to the animals to take pictures. Last year, a woman at South Dakota’s Custer State Park sat in the middle of a bison herd to snap photos, which caused a female bison to charge her and rip her pants off.
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