Mother Bear From Yellowstone National Park Chases Tourists Who Crowded On Her Cubs [WATCH]

Tourists at Yellowstone National Park had a close encounter with bear cubs, but the mother apparently did not like having people near them. The black bear sow went charging on the curious tourists in what is believed to be in defence of her cubs.

Park ranger John Kerr was yelling at the tourists as seen on the video. “Keep going! Go! Go!” he said as the defensive black bear was chasing tourists. According to Bob Gibson, communication and education programme manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, in an NBC News report, the tourists were clearly in danger.

Black bears are naturally shy, but if the mother feels that her cubs are threatened, they can become very defensive. Gibson said never to get in between a mother and its cub.

According to National Geographic, being North America’s most common bears, black bears are actually solitary animals shown to roam vast territories. However, they are not protective of their own territories.

The cubs shown in the video are around 13 months old, according to Gibson. Female black bears can give birth to two or three cubs in the middle of winter and care for them until spring. The cubs depend on their protective mother until they are about two years old.

Gibson said that the wildlife encounter could turn out deadly if the cubs were much younger. “The mom would have been all over the tourists,” he said in a report from NBC News.

Experts say that there are limited options for escaping when confronted with a bear. They say that it is difficult to outrun a bear, even if traveling on a downhill path, the Washington Post reports. Gibson advises Yellowstone National Park tourists to stay away from bears during an encounter, especially during spring, when a cub is still weeks or months from birth.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks stated on their Facebook page to keep a safe distance from the wildlife to avoid stressing them. The service’s Facebook page announced that no one was hurt, and the bears made their way back to the forest.