iStockphoto / Brittany Crossman / Jag_cz
A family barbecue in Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania took a turn when a massive black bear crashed the event. Then one of the dads went into alpha mode and slowly forced the bear out of the yard and even got into a little slap fight with the massive black bear.
The video has caught like wildfire on social media. The footage starts with the big bear near the water and the dad, telling the bear to ‘c’mon’ as he ushers it toward the fence.
Inexplicably, the bear seems to take direction from the alpha dad who walks within a foot or two of the massive black bear all the way to the fence of their Lake Harmony home.
At one point, the dad even walks directly in front of the bear to open the fence which put him at extreme risk of being attacked in that moment but both parties remained calm even when the bear went on its hind legs and took a swipe at the dad who stayed cool as a cucumber.
@zerokewlz Bruh… #viralvideo #funnyvideos #dankmemes #fypシ゚viral #fypage #fypシ #fyp #memes #meme #memevideo #memevideos #animalstok
The top comment on the video was someone joking “I think Mike was drinking his own Hard Lemonade.” Someone else added “How this guy is alive at this stage in life with these decision skills is beyond me.”
Dramatic moment a fearless man gets swiped by a large black #bear as he tries to usher the wild animal out of campsite,in Lake Harmony, #Pennsylvania pic.twitter.com/uTLGpkgfbX
— Hans Solo (@thandojo) September 6, 2023
The Lake Harmony Black Bear Video: Mistakes Were Made
This advice is universal, but given that this incident was filmed in Lake Harmony, PA we can go do the Pennsylvania Game Commission for advice here. They write “Bears are wild animals, and like all wild animals can react defensively if they feel threatened.”
Their 5 pillars of advice should you encounter a bear are: (1) Alert the bear, (2) Get back, (3) Stay calm, (4) Pay attention, and (5) Fight back (if needed). Mike had no interest in getting back when that big ol’ black bear came rolling up to the cookout.
He did stay calm, we have to give him that. And Mike did Alert the bear, so he’s 2 for 3. It’s unclear if he was ever really paying attention, as he walked right in front of the bear’s mouth by the fend. And we can’t really give him credit for ‘fight back’ when the bear took a swipe but he did go into alpha mode so the bear knew he was in charge. In total, I’d say Mike gets a 3 or 3.5 out of 5 possible points.