[VIDEO] Hiker Comes Face To Face With Mama Bear And Cubs On Trail; Why A Gun Is A Last Resort

KATAMI NATIONAL PARK, ALASKA — A hiker came upon a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs while on a trail at a park in Alaska. Why are we sharing this video, you ask? Many times, questions pop up in this category and while we try to answer them as best we can, there’s no real answer to a question like the following:

What should I do if I encounter a grizzly bear while hiking in the woods?

It (hopefully) goes without saying that using your firearm is an absolute last resort. The video above is a perfect example of not needing to fire your gun, even though three grizzly bears keep walking towards you. Some may ask, again, ‘Why are you sharing this video?” The answer is simple, and unfortunate. There are some out there who would, even in this scenario, take out their gun and shoot the bears and/or fire a round in an attempt to scare them off. In this scenario, we see no threatening behavior from the animals, and they’re maintaining a (relatively) safe distance from our hiker. While the video is pretty incredible to watch, I would have been more focused on getting out of there instead of making sure the bears remained in frame. Luckily, this guy didn’t decide to try and run, which could have made the bears advance in more of an attack mode. It’s probably also relevant to note that these bears are probably used to seeing people in the area and as long as no one messes with her cubs, it seems like they’d be a pretty low threat. How would you have handled this situation? Let us know in the comments section below.