A photo of two fishermen being gazed by a large grizzly bear has gone viral and the most surprising thing is the two were not even bothered when they realized the bear was behind them.
A wildlife photographer Robert Hawthorne took the shot at Katmai National Park in Alaska and he told PEOPLE that he has photographed bears many times before.
The 21-year-old photographer has experience with animals and he knew that the coastal brown bear sneaking up behind the men was not going to attack them.
He said: ”Knowing from experience there that it isn’t a threat in how it was playing out, I had time to take a photo before letting this guy know that he had a bear behind him,”
”And believe it or not, his reaction was simply [that he] looked over his shoulder and continued fishing.”
”I’ve literally been sitting down on the bank, like right where those fisherman are,”
”I’ve heard something behind me and looked up over my shoulder and had the underside of a bear looking over top of me.”
”And that bear even that close to me was doing nothing but looking past me into the water to find fish, and honestly, if he had seen something he liked, he probably would’ve jumped right over me or walked right past me.”
”What often gets bears killed, or what gets bears in conflict with humans, is when they come into people’s territories and get into trash,”
”These bears haven’t gotten a taste of anything but what’s wild, and we literally just get to drop ourselves in the middle and be ignored by them almost.”
A spokesperson for Katmai told PEOPLE that they are still wild animals that can exhibit ‘unpredictable and unforeseen behavior.’
”A hefty food supply means less competition, which can mean the bears have more of a tolerance for one another, and often for people,” the spokesperson says. “However, these are wild bears who can certainly injure or kill someone, and have. One of the most notable individuals who was killed by a coastal brown bear was Timothy Treadwell, who was killed in Katmai National Park in 2003 after having a spent many seasons observing the bears in close proximity.”
Hawthorne said that he didn’t get a chance to meet the two fishermen he photographed, but hopes that they know that their photo has gone viral.
”That photo strikes a nerve for a lot of people. You look at it and you go, ‘Oh my goodness, I hope I never have a bear that close behind me,’ ” he told PEOPLE, estimating that the encounter was just 15-20 seconds long. “But really, I wish I [had taken] photos following it … They looked over their shoulder, and then picked the line out of the water, and stood there looking at the bear as it continued down the bank.”
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