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Yellowstone National Park is filled with signs reminding visitors to keep their distance if they encounter some of the many wild animals that roam the massive expanse. Unfortunately, some tourists fail to heed those warnings, including one man who luckily emerged unscathed after purposefully approaching a pack of wolves.
There’s no shortage of natural wonders to take in across the nearly 3,500 square miles that comprise Yellowstone National Park, but there are also plenty of ways you end up in danger if you’re not careful.
Far too many of the approximately 5 million people who make the trek to Yellowstone each year decide to wander off the well-defined paths that are designed to keep them away from its scalding hot springs, and while that’s a hazard you can easily avoid, that’s not necessarily the case when it comes to the region’s wildlife.
Visitors who head to Yellowstone are advised to stay at least 25 yards away from its bison and elk, and that number rises to 100 when it concerns bears, cougars, and wolves. However, one man firmly ignored those guidelines during an encounter with the last of those animals.
A man was filmed deploying bear spray after approaching a pack of wolves at Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone remained open during the government shutdown, but there was a staffing shortage that made it easier for people to get away with bad behavior.
According to SF Gate, that includes one man who was captured by a wildlife photographer who’d set up shop in Lamar Valley in the hopes of capturing some footage of some fauna before focusing his camera on a guy who decided to make his way toward a pack of black wolves.
Video showed him strolling down a trail toward a pack that was comprised of at least five animals that were clearly aware of his presence (the outlet spoke with an expert who said they were pups born earlier this year), and the fact that they started moving toward him only seemed to make him pick up the pace.
The guy was wielding a can of bear spray that did not deter the wolves’ advances when he flashed it in their direction, and onlookers could be heard yelling at him to flee the area before he deployed a cloud that appeared to ward the animals away.
It is worth noting that wolf attacks on humans are fairly rare; there have only been seven fatalities in North America in the past century, the most recent of which occurred in Alaska in 2010.
The man was able to avoid contributing to those statistics, but it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of trying.