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Charging brown bear over Glacier National Park
One of the last things you want to see when you’re in Grizzly Bear Country is one of those animals charging toward you. That’s the situation around a dozen people visiting Glacier National Park recently encountered, but they probably didn’t need to run away when you consider the bear in question was preoccupied with a squirrel that caught its attention.
The majority of the states in America have a documented bear population, but most of the ones that check that box are only home to ones of the black variety.
That species is known for being less aggressive toward humans than brown bears (a.k.a. grizzly bears), which can only be found in five states; none boast more than the estimated 30,000 in Alaska, which is joined by Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
That last one is home to Glacier National Park, where approximately 300 grizzlies roam alongside the estimated 600 brown bears that occupy the 1,583 square miles of the expanse that’s located on the Canadian border.
A younger member of that first species recently managed to cause a bit of a stir, but the people who understandably scrambled away after it charged at them probably didn’t need to be too concerned.
A grizzly bear chasing a squirrel caused a group of tourists to flee inside Glacier National Park
People who visit Glacier National Park are required to remain at least 100 yards from any bears that they encounter while there, and they are also advised to carry bear spray they can deploy if one of them decides to get a bit too close.
That’s the situation a number of tourists encountered earlier this month, as an actress named Micah Lynn Hanson shared a video that was filmed by another woman who captured the group that the former was a part of running to avoid a young grizzly that unexpectedly darted toward them.
However, as she noted in the caption, it didn’t look like the bear was interested in any of the people but rather the squirrel that could be seen sprinting across a hiking path as the bear engaged in an ultimately unsuccessful pursuit.
Experts generally don’t recommend running away when it looks like you’ve attracted the attention of a bear, but there’s only so much you can do to control how you react in the heat of the moment.