Massive bear has perfect reaction to close people encounter

Footage showing a large black bear pausing behind a bush to avoid detection by people exiting a house has generated varied responses on social media.

Footage showing a large black bear pausing behind a bush to avoid detection by people exiting a house has generated varied responses on social media.

The video, sent to WFSB Channel 3 by a resident of Avon, Conn., shows the bear avoiding a potential conflict by waiting until both people rounded a corner before continuing its journey.

“What a sweet bear to wait for them to leave,” reads one of dozens of comments beneath the WFSB Tweet.

But it was a retweet by primate researcher Alicia Rich that generated the most engagement, with an introduction implying that humans could learn plenty from the bear’s behavior.

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“This is how most human-wildlife interactions go,” Rich tweeted. “They see us, we don’t see them, they avoid us, we go about our business. Keep that mind every time some crazy escalation incident goes viral.”

Rich’s tweet garnered thousands of likes and retweets, and inspired dozens of comments. The most popular was a basic observation: “The way that bear carefully backed away when it saw the humans should be an example to us all of what to do when encountering wildlife.”

Close behind, however, was this: “Hence the advisory to prioritize de-escalating the encounter. Everyone (even bears) just wants to go back home safe.”

More social commentary: “The bear is better at social distancing than lots of people I see out there.”

One person wondered what would have happened had the people exiting the house turned and saw the bear. Thankfully, because of the bear’s natural instincts, we’ll never know.

–Image courtesy of WFSB Channel 3