It's one of those moments that just makes your stomach drop. You're out trying to enjoy the quiet beauty of a national park, and then you see it: a crowd of people making a terrible decision. A shocking new photo is putting this exact problem on display, showing just how quickly a beautiful wildlife sighting can turn into a dangerous situation.
The image, shared by the Instagram account Toursons of National Parks (@touronsofnationalparks), is hard to look at.
A large group of tourists is gathered on an overlook in Glacier National Park, standing just a few yards away from an agitated grizzly bear. The original photographer summed up the tense scene perfectly. "He was riled up because a herd of Big Horn sheep got away from him just before this picture was taken," they wrote. "We were far enough away on the road in our car but the crowd was quite close."
What's so frustrating is that this is dangerous for everyone, especially the bear.
The National Park Service is crystal clear in its advice: Visitors should stay at least 300 feet away from grizzly bears. That's a whole football field. Ignoring that simple rule doesn't just risk an attack; it puts the bear's life on the line. Animals that hurt people, even when they are provoked, are often killed by park officials.
This isn't a one-off problem, either. It's happening all over.
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In Jasper National Park, a group of tourists was caught on video chasing a grizzly down a highway. Officials in Zion National Park have had to issue special warnings after too many people got too close to bighorn sheep. And in Rocky Mountain National Park, visitors have repeatedly been spotted ignoring the rules to get closer to elk.
The reaction to the photo was intense, with many commenters siding with the bear.
"Those guys are a line of fools," one person wrote. "What part of stay in your vehicle do they not understand?"
Another pointed out just how fast a situation like this can go wrong: "They have never seen how fast those big bois (and girls) can run."
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One user summed it up perfectly: "Team bear."
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