Onlooker captures photos of tourists' dangerous actions near grizzly bears: 'I called ranger dispatch on my radio'

A visitor to Yellowstone National Park captured a potentially dangerous scene unfolding after encountering a trio of grizzly bears in the park.

Posting in the r/Yellowstone subreddit, a Redditor shared photos they took of three grizzly bears that they believed to be a sow and two older cubs.

"Do humans not have instinctual fear of these types of predators?" — Photo Credit: Reddit

While the original poster moved to a safe distance and took photographs with a long-range zoom lens, they explained that other visitors were not as responsible.

"As shown, a bunch of idiots climbed the embankment and stood about 30 yards from the bears," they said. "When the bears started moving closer and showing signs of agitation and the fools didn't move, I called ranger dispatch on my radio. One of the bears faced the people and stood on its hind legs. That's not a good sign. We weren't going to stick around to watch someone get mauled. We left right after rangers arrived on scene."

Those park visitors failed to vacation responsibly by following Yellowstone's recommendations for safely viewing wildlife. According to its guidelines, guests should stay at least 100 yards away from both bears and wolves to keep everyone safe.

While bears may look cute, grizzlies are not to be trifled with. Adult male grizzly bears can stand around 7 feet tall on their hind legs and weigh between 400 and 1,000 pounds. They can run up to 35 miles per hour, which is faster than the fastest humans on Earth can move, and tend to be more aggressive than the smaller black bear.

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If an incident involving humans occurs, the bears are typically euthanized for their safety and the safety of visitors, so you're putting them in as much danger as yourself by being too close.

Commenters were quick to call out the baffling behavior.

"I'm honestly asking this," said one. "Do humans not have instinctual fear of these types of predators?"

"Good job reporting this," said another. "Just seeing the first pic I thought oh no that's too close, it didn't get any better!"