Scary helmet-cam footage of a bear charging a mountain biker has gone viral
Mountain biking through scenic woods seems like a really fun activity. Well, Dorothy, I’m about to ruin it for you. Here’s a little reminder that the woods are full of lions and tigers and bears. OK, I’m not sure about the lions and tigers part. But there are definitely bears in the woods.
A video of two Slovakian mountain bikers encountering a bear and capturing the incident on a helmet-cam has gone viral—with the YouTube video they posted garnering over 10 million views as of the time of publication.
(A word of warning, if you get motion sickness you might want to take something for that before you watch any type of head-cam footage. Trust me.)
YouTube user Dusan Vinzik and his buddy appear to be enjoying a nice ride down a wooded trail when all of a sudden, a bear tries to turn Vinzik’s buddy into his “Revenant” co-star:
Vinzik yells—in dramatic slow-motion—what we are assuming is the Slovakian word for “BEAR!” in time to warn his friend to pump his brakes and make a hasty retreat.
I give credit to Vinzik, because I think I would have simply turned around and let the bear chase after my friend.
RELATED: Footage of a black bear yielding a stick of bamboo like a real-life Kung Fu Panda was caught at the ASA Zoo in Japan, and it’s really quite impressive. It’s gotten over 6 million views on YouTube!
Bears Have Chased Cyclists Before
Bears chasing cyclists is nothing new, as it turns out. In 2014, Canadian cyclist Brad Paras was biking in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, when a mama bear appeared to his right.
In the video of the incident, Paras does what most of us would have done. First, he takes a 90-degree turn. Then he says a naughty word (warning!), tumbles down a hill and crashes into a log.
You can get a look at the bear at around the :34 second mark.
Bears Have Chased Hikers, Too
OK, maybe chased isn’t the right word to describe this hiker’s encounter with a mama bear and her cub. Followed with extreme curiosity may be a more apt description.
Geoffrey Glassner, 74, was hiking in Alaska’s Katmai National Park when he ran into a family of Grizzly bears. Glassner remained calm and even had the presence of mind to whip out his camera and record them as he walked backwards away from the bears.
“The mom and the cubs keep following me, and they’re walking at least as fast as I am,” Glassner notes in the video. Yikes!
He can be heard breathing heavily as he continues to document the frightening ordeal and even pleads with the animals at one point, saying, “Oh come on, guys, give me a break.” Eventually, the bears found a river and left a relieved Glassner alone.
Some Bear Chases Are Fake, However
Of course, there are also fake videos of bear chases floating around on the internet, like the one Field and Stream debunked in 2014. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that this video is fake. While the bear in the first two videos gives short chase, the one in the fake video just keeps running after the cyclist like the T-Rex in “Jurassic Park.”
If you do find yourself in a real-life encounter with a bear, the National Park Service recommends that you try to make yourself look as large as possible while talking calmly to the bear—maybe something like “So, how about those Chicago Cubs?”—before moving slowly away in a sideways motion.
RELATED: The Video Of A Girl Getting Dragged Underwater By A Sea Lion Is A Cautionary Tale
Or just make sure you never bike without Leonardo DiCaprio.
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