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Watch a bear sit next to a photographer: it’s both heartwarming and terrifying

by 9 Comments

Ah, wildlife photography… What a great way to take some gorgeous shots while also enjoying nature. You sit there, enjoy peace, quiet and beautiful weather, think about stuff, hang out with a bear… Wait, what?

Yup, while he was taking photos, photographer Drew Hammond had a visit from a large bear who approached and sat beside him. It seems like the bear wanted to enjoy the beautiful day himself, and the scene is both adorable and scary as hell.

Hammond was photographing bears catching salmon in Alaska when one of them approached him and sat beside him. As a viewer watching this on my laptop screen, I feel like hugging that adorable bear. I mean, just look at those fluffy ears and that cute face! But, if I had been in the photographer’s place, I’d probably have a heart attack.

When the bear stands up and goes behind the photographer, things get a little tense for a moment. Still, Hammond managed to react calmly and the bear just left. When he turns the camera around, you can see just how many bears there were at the moment, so I’m not surprised one came up to check out what was going on.

The video was posted quite a long time ago by jprocdaddy, and the credits are given to Drew Hammond. It’s quite old, but it seems to be making its rounds again. With all my good will, I wasn’t able to figure out which of the Drew Hammonds out there is the photographer behind the video, because Google offers several different people. But whoever he is: my hat’s off to him for staying so calm in this incredibly tense situation.

[bear sits next to guy via FStoppers]

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  • North Polar

    And this is why we (Alaskans) keep shotguns or other firearms at hand while in the woods. Considering the guy’s shotgun is next to the bear on the ground, it was probably brown pants time.

    In general while the fish are running, the bears will go after them for easier food. That said, they’ll still kill the ever living hell out of you if you piss them off or they are hungry. Pretty much everyone knows someone up here that has been mauled by a bear. A prominent pastor of a church a few miles from me got chewed up real good about a decade back for example.

    Timothy Treadwell is a perfect example of bears going from easy food to putting people on the menu in a heartbeat.

    • Dunja0712

      Woah, I didn’t even notice the shotgun on the ground. Only now that you’ve mentioned it, I figured out what that black & silver “tube” on the ground is.

      “pretty much everyone knows someone up here that has been mauled by a bear.” – this sounds pretty scary!

      • North Polar

        You’ve got to remember that Alaska compared to the rest of the US is incredibly small population wise. We’ve got ~740,000 people in a place over twice the size of Texas. On the other hand, you can fit multiples of our population in the suburbs and county of any larger city. Alaska is ~1.3 people per square mile, while King County (Seattle area) has 933 per square mile.

        So it’s a whole different order of scale really. It gets really easy to know a lot of people when a good % of the people you went to school with and their families are still in the same place and all.

    • That’s not a shotgun. It’s a Henry 30-30 rifle. But agreed. It’s not doing him any good on the ground.

      • North Polar

        Look at the bottom of the firearm early in the video. That’s a Remington 870 Special Purpose Marine Magnum 12ga. Henry does their all weathers, but those are a tube fed/reloaded lever action, not a bottom fed pump / shell lifter design.

        https://www.remington.com/shotguns/pump-action/model-870/model-870-special-purpose-marine-magnum

        • Yup, your right. I didn’t notice the split second in the video showing the bottom.

          • Not a filthy american

            You Americans and your guns, tsk tsk. Can’t just be normal for once smh.

  • Ralph Hightower

    Hey Yogi, that’s my beer!

  • The bear wants the photographer to catch him a fish

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