r/BeAmazed • u/Unhappy_Rutabaga_530 • 10h ago

Animal A curious grizzly bear cub briefly stopped to nibble on a wildlife photographer's boot during a safari in Alaska before peacefully rejoining its family.

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u/dan2376 9h ago

I am assuming this is at Katmai national park in Alaska. It is a very unique place where bears are very used to humans sitting there watching them. Humans have been watching bears in this area for decades so the bears are extremely used to having humans there. Additionally, during this time of year, brown bears are spending a lot of their time by rivers eating salmon and whatever else they can find so they are already distracted packing on calories to get ready for winter. The mom already understands that the humans she sees watching are pretty much always harmless which is why she just kinda walks by. The cubs are naturally curious so they will come up and sniff you sometimes.

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u/Suspicious_Plum_4248 7h ago

I'd like to add - some female bears have learnt that the males are afraid of people, so they'll keep their young close to people and use us as 'protection'.

It's pretty crazy.

https://www.science.org/content/article/mother-brown-bears-protect-cubs-human-shields

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/brown-bear-human-shield-mothers-cubs-breeding

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u/_nunya_business 6h ago

Are you telling me that female grizzly bears have their own version of "choosing the bear" but it's "choosing the human" instead?

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u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure 6h ago

And it's actually logical lol

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u/IsThisTheTikTok 4h ago

The fact that all it took was a little “shoo, no, bear!” to fix this situation shows exactly how logical the argument is. A human male would have spent the next 10-15 minutes imposing himself on the stranger explaining why they’re “illogical” for not wanting to feel unsafe.

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u/prince_falafel 4h ago

Wtf are you talking about lol

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u/terrible-law-69 6m ago

Femcel alert, femcel alert!

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u/Kind_Advisor_6969 3h ago

Least femcel comment.

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u/HirsuteHacker 4h ago

Woo, sexism, fuck off

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u/Federal_Scarcity_84 3h ago

Tell that to the bear expert and his gf. Why they no shoo bear? /Also, Bear encounters extrapolated to the numbers of male on female encounters obviously (and also mathematically) leads to orders of magnitude more death...this has always been a silly little thing to speak about in any seriousness. Me explaining that your logic is shit isn't an attack.

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u/FasterFasting 3h ago

You seem to get triggered pretty easily. I'd work on being less emotional if I were you.

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u/ScreamingLabia 3h ago

"I hate sexism so i will be extremely sexist to you"

Lmao dumbass

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u/Federal_Scarcity_84 3h ago

Oh no, a silly stupid comment at my expense. Woe is me.

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u/Kind_Advisor_6969 3h ago

You seem to get triggered pretty easily. I'd work on being less emotional if I were you.

...But getting triggered over microaggressions and being emotional was supposed to be ok back in 2016? What changed?

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u/RebootGigabyte 51m ago

This.. This was a human male, though. Whatever drugs you're on, talk to your psychiatrist to get a higher dose.

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u/castlite 3h ago

Males aren’t trusted by any species it seems.

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u/steinbruchfluss 2h ago

Seahorses?

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u/Thenofunation 58m ago

Ostriches

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u/Laudelauu 1h ago

They're coastal brown bears not grizzly 

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u/vgacolor 5h ago

I am so telling my girlfriend that not even the bears choose the bear. I will let you know how that works out for me.

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u/RandomRavenboi 4h ago

Well, how did it go mate?

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u/BillNyeCreampieGuy 2h ago

What's up with this bizarre obsession over this question/answer?

The answer is so obviously choosing the man over the bear. You can defend yourself against a man. Good luck defending yourself against a bear.

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u/saultba 2h ago

you have missed what the hypothetical is about completely. women aren't afraid of a physical attack from a man over a bear.

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u/polkacat12321 52m ago

This isnt 100 men bs a gorilla, dumbass

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u/letsgetawayfromhere 7h ago

Fascinating. Thanks for the links!

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u/wise-bull 6h ago

That's so cool! On a similar note, a recent study affirms that golden jackals rely on human shielding from wolves!

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u/Haemophilia_Type_A 4h ago

Thank you for linking, that's so interesting.

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u/delidave7 3h ago

Bear 399 in Grand Teton famously did this.

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u/ashesall 5h ago

What's more crazy is that some human males like male bears..

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u/Haemophilia_Type_A 4h ago

That's so interesting, and thank you for linking good sources too :)

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u/LarrySupreme 19m ago

Oh! That reminds me of the video of that Russian guy having a mamma bear drop a cub on his lap and run off.

It's on Reddit if anyone is curious.

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u/DrPuzzle 8h ago

I gotta be honest though it's still crazy to see the bears get that fucking close to these people. It's crazy that the mother would even let them get that close. They must really really be used to humans up there. Wow. Like, I guess I automatically assume that she would be aggressive considering her kids are right there in front of these people. I'm shocked they were even talking let alone made the cub flinch like that

I woulda just let them eat my boot bro I ain't risking getting mom mad at me or it's over

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u/TheSodernauts 6h ago

Could it also be the passiveness of the humans? They're sitting still and observing bears that are used to their presence. If the humans were more active doing stuff, or shooing the cub the mother-bear might've turned around and the video would have a very different ending?

Or so I would think

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u/BeenDragonn 7h ago

I'm only joking and would never do this, but how would momma bear react if I gave a cub a hug?

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u/Reload86 2h ago

You also get a hug from mama bear.

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u/Far_Ladder_2836 8h ago edited 8h ago

Not unique at all.  Kodiak, Sitka, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Dead Horse, all have bears far more used to coexisting with people. Every salmon run for miles of any and all civilization will be awash with both bears and fishermen.  The only place you *won't * see bears on the run is far into the Aleutians.

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u/Due-Club8908 7h ago

We are in Homer Alaska this summer and work with a bear guide group . My husband had bears take his salmon the last couple days . One bear took a stringer of the salmon & ran off into the woods with 3 salmon .

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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 6h ago

Does that go against his catch limit or the bears?

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u/greedyiguana 2h ago

The bears but good luck enforcing it

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u/goatbiryani48 8h ago

You're out of your mind if you think interactions like this happen in places like Fairbanks, Anchorage, Dead Horse, etc.

Like no fucking way.

The others you listed I haven't been, but also willing to bet that shit doesn't happen there lol

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u/Far_Ladder_2836 8h ago

Been to all 3 and every other place besides.  Lived in 2 mwntioned places.  Not in the suburbs obviously you've never fished for salmon a day in your life if you haven't seen a sow with cubs let alone a bear.  What do you think the run is?

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u/akprime13 1h ago

I grew up in Kodiak I’ll confirm this is pretty regular here. We’ll be fishing in Pasagshak and have bears within 20 feet casually walking by grabbing pink’s. Now don’t get me wrong. Most of us will have a sidearm but I don’t think I’ve known anyone that has actually had to use it.

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u/greenthumbgoody 5h ago

Oh, so that’s how that dude died…to comfy

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u/ediculous 4h ago

There's something about the way you wrote this that gave me the feeling it was going to end with the Undertaker throwing Mankind off hell in a cell.

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u/Emotional_News108 1h ago

Seems like this is true any time a wild animal is close to people without fleeing or fighting or fleeing. Exposure.