A hike in the mountains of northern Italy turned terrifying when a huge brown bear suddenly began stalking a 12-year-old boy. Luckily the youth had recently studied how to act when confronting a bear and calmly, almost nonchalantly, walked away to safety.
The encounter occurred around 11:30 a.m. Sunday in the wilds above Magla Nuova in the Municipality of Sporminore in the Province of Trentino, and it was captured in video by Loris Calliari, the father of the boy, Alessandro.
“He was walking a few yards ahead of us collecting pine shoots when we realized he was emerging from the vegetation followed by a bear,” the boy’s uncle, Federico, told the newspaper La Stampa (via The Times of the UK). “We were obviously alarmed, while he was truly calm.”
At one point, the bear reared up on its hind legs to check him out. Had the boy run, the bear most likely would have given chase, and possibly attacked.
Also on FTW Outdoors: Angler risks swimming with sharks to avoid losing fish
Calliari told 24Zampe that Alessandro “is a bear lover and could not wait to see one. He already knew how to behave and he moved away slowly, and I managed to make the video…He remained calm and peaceful in front of the bear.”
Allessandro, who has a passion for animals and the outdoors, had been reading at home during the pandemic lockdown about how to react when encountering a bear. His lessons paid off.
“It was important to leave quickly but without making the bear feel it was in danger,” Alessandro explained the Daily Mail. “I did not look at it in the eye and the bear understood I was not its enemy. And now I am the happiest child in the world.”
The bear, as seen in the video, eventually lost interest and wandered off.
Photo courtesy of Loris Calliari.