A clip has gone viral wherein a family of bears wandered into traffic and one of them high-fived a driver.
The video posted by Rebeca Elena Gh with a TikTok account named @ebecaelenagb has gone viral and accumulated more than 10 million views and over 1.8 million likes. The clip was captioned with: “Chill day 👋🏻” and received 8,800 comments and 54,800 likes.
In a clip recorded by another passing driver, a group of bears can be seen parking themselves in the middle of a road passing through some forest land, causing a bit of a traffic jam as vehicles steer well clear.
A trio of bears can be seen wandering along the busy road, then all of a sudden, as a man sitting in the passenger seat of a car holds his hand up to greet the animals, without hesitation, one of the animals decides to move towards the vehicle.
Both the baby bear and the man seem a bit cautious of each other at first. The bear doesn’t know what the man wants, and the man doesn’t want the bear to rip his arm off, but eventually, the bear offers up his paw to return the high five from the man.
The bear hops up onto its hind legs and extends one of its paws towards the vehicle’s driver, who is also reaching out for the bear. Then, the bear attempts to touch the driver, but it moves a bit too fast and stumbles.
Once it regains its balance, the baby bear now within inches of the driver’s window, reaches out again and high-fives the driver. The bear stares at the driver for a few moments before running back to its group, taking a seat on the pavement while another bear, presumably its mother calmly approaches.
The adorable interaction has since gone viral and commenters were both stunned and delighted by the sweet exchange of high-fives. People try to understand how the bear managed to figure out the human gesture, and how the man got away with it.
One person commented on Instagram: “How did he not get his face ripped off?” with a second one writing “That could (have) ended terribly but it didn’t so I’m happy.”
Some of them were shocked saying: “Omgggg this is precious!”, another added: “Now that’s an experience of a lifetime!”
Someone said: “mama bear was like.. what did I tell you about talking to strangers!”
On the other hand, some of them argued that the driver shouldn’t have touched the bear. One TikTok user commented: “While this is cute and makes you appreciate bears, it’s actually not smart as it puts the bears in potential danger down the road (not literally).”
“Agreed. I wish everyone would respect them from a distance. People don’t realize that these bears being this friendly means they get put down,” someone added.
Meanwhile, a Colorado Springs bear was euthanized in June of 2020 after breaking into a resident’s home.
Bears that become aggressive towards humans are often euthanized. In a public statement about the incident, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) explained that bears that become “too comfortable around people can learn to open doors, destroy property or even become aggressive towards humans”.
Cassidy English, CPW’s District Wildlife Manager said: “It’s always a hard day when we have to euthanize a bear. Our mission is to protect wildlife. When bears become habituated to people, they can become a threat to public safety. This is why it is so important that our community works together to keep wildlife wild,” she concluded.
Despite bears having been used in the past as circus animals, where they were taught to dance and perform certain tricks, bears can usually only be tamed if they’re born and bred in captivity, a practice that is generally regarded now as a form of animal cruelty.
Bears are mammals that belong to the family Ursidae. They can be as small as four feet long and about 60 pounds (the sun bear) to as big as eight feet long and more than a thousand pounds (the polar bear). They’re found throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
On average, bears can live up to 25 years in the wild and 50 in captivity. Six species, including the polar bear and the giant panda, are included on the IUCN Red List as threatened or vulnerable.