Yellowstone Tourists Risk Their Lives by Getting Way Too Close to Wildlife — All Just for Photos

Snuggled inside her lakeside home in Lamar Valley in the northeastern part of the Yellowstone National Park, Mary is playing with her two cubs. Like most grizzly males, her partner left the den soon after mating, leaving her the responsibility to protect and feed the two cubs. When summers arrive, she lumbers down to the low-elevation valleys where predators like wolves and coyotes await to rip apart their flesh.

Many times, she and her cubs are lucky enough to feast upon a dinner of fish or an animal’s carcass. But with predators prowling around, most of the time, they have to depend on plants, berries, insects, and grassy shoots for survival. But the greatest threat perhaps she and other grizzlies in the park face is humans, per the Wild Life Documentary. A resurfaced clip on Tourons of Yellowstone (@touronsofyellowstone) received a strong backlash as viewers saw some tourists trying to break the park’s safety rules and intrude into the territory of a grizzly bear.

With their powerful arsenal of weapons and gadgets, most of them, including Mary, can’t afford to go too close to humans. So when the summer sun emerges above Yellowstone’s skies, these grizzly bears come out of their dens and tend to become aggressive at the human visitors, given that they’re starved and thirsty. In such a scenario, stepping out of the boundaries to get too close to a bear can be fatal.

In the scene shared in the abovementioned post, three tourists can be seen standing on an ice-covered terrain of the national park, clicking photographs of a gigantic grizzly bear, galumphing at a short distance. Filmed by nature enthusiast Zack Baker (@zjbaker), the scene was likely captured from a car’s window whose glass seemed to be glistening with raindrops. While the three humans stand in the icy valley, bordered by a rain-soaked street, the giant black creature emerges from behind a cluster of little bushes sprouting out from the ground. No one can say whether the bear noticed these humans, because it eventually waddled away in the opposite direction. But the possibility that it could have attacked them was not very distant.

Reflecting upon this possibility, viewers responded with a counterblast. Baker also warned the visitors by urging them to stick to the park’s guidelines. "Tourons in Yellowstone 30-40 yards from a Grizzly Bear! Try to keep at least 100 yards away from all bears," he wrote in the caption. He also shared a second image in the carousel that features a signboard reading “Be Bear Aware,” along with a bear’s paw print.

He also clipped a list of guidelines shared by the National Park Service (NPS) for tourists who are venturing into the bear country of Yellowstone. From the trails in the park’s backcountry to its boardwalks and parking lots in Old Faithful, bears are everywhere. The agency cautioned people to remember to protect themselves while trotting in these areas. “Keep at least 100 yards (93 meters) from bears at all times and never approach a bear to take a photo,” reads the first guideline.

“Some people just have to learn the hard way,” commented @grouchyolbear. @theresa.mcbride.50 said, “They should all have to pay a fine.” @niederkruger grunted, “I'm seriously confounded why people think this is safe? They are wild animals and your trampling through their home”

Other tips are to stow away a “bear spray” while boarding a drive to Yellowstone, as well as to hike in groups. In case a visitor finds themselves standing too close to a grizzly, they can even yell “Hey bear!” to shoo away the bear. NPS says that there are more than 330 million visitors who walk the grounds and terrains of this park, where thousands of grizzlies snoop around throughout the day. This calls for taking extra precautions unless you want to end up on the dinner plate of Mary or his little grizzlies.

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