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u/Spartan2470 Sep 11 '26
This happened on the Transfagarasan mountain road in Romania.
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u/Bojangles8853 Sep 11 '26
Yep knew it immediately when I saw it. The bear population in and around that area is WAY overpopulated and you aren't allowed to hunt them because they are protected by the EU. A lot of locals are upset about that rule. Lots of people feed the bears and they hang out near the highways.
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u/MoscaMosquete Sep 11 '26
Lots of people feed the bears
Lots of people asking for shit to happen
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u/7_4WarFuror Sep 12 '26
They should go read up about the time long ago when the US used to feed the bears in Yellowstone as part of a show, with spectators. Spoiler alert- it did not end well for the bears.
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u/Chaos_Philosopher Sep 12 '26
Honestly, as a trans person who dates trans people, I'm quite interested in this Transfagarsen!
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u/FloridianRobot Sep 11 '26
I would be so embarrassed if I grew up one day and was shown this video of my father.
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u/Try_To_Write Sep 11 '26
At first, I agreed, but then I watched again.
Look at the very first second of the video. It looks like he's aware and looking directly at the bear. Another guy also sees it and immediately jumps in his car.
This guy chose not to run, which is the correct thing to do as it will cause the bear to chase. He also chose to look away, which I don't believe is correct, but I'm not going to judge as I wouldn't know what to do beyond shitting my pants.
He stands still, is aware of the bear coming up on his leg, and even looks back as the car is approaching him. People are accusing him of looking down at his phone the whole time and being completely unaware, but he's not. He sees the car is coming, and likely can see the bear out of his peripheral when the car pushes the bear further forward. Then the bear walks in front of him, where it can in no way not be seen and it looks like he's looking right at, but he still doesn't run.
He doesn't run until the bear jumps up on its hind legs. At that point, the guy feels the don't run tactic isn't working, he's going to be attacked, and he needs to get out of there.
So if you consider the way he runs, or his choice not to run (correct thing to do), or his choice to look away (incorrect), etc. as being embarrassing, then continue on. But he's not oblivious and made some correct choices.
The worst part is he was likely out of the car in the first place because all the stopped cars saw the bear and wanted a closer look. Stay in your car, or at least be very close to it and keep your distance from the wildlife.
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u/Mikkelsen Sep 11 '26
Yeah, I agree with you. I pointed it out last time I saw this posted and everyone gave me shit and downvotes lol.
I 100% stand by this guy being aware of the bear and acting accordingly.
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u/Animagical Sep 11 '26
This is absolutely not the way you are supposed to act when confronted with a bear.
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u/lemoche Sep 11 '26
Not running yes, but he might have mixed in "no eye contact" and "not being confrontational" from other animals. I wasn’t that how you should handle dogs and gorillas?
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u/Animagical Sep 11 '26
I have no idea about dogs and gorillas but with a bear you should always face it and back away slowly if possible. If in a group, huddle together and get as big as possible. Make lots of noise.
You want the bear to think it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Facing away from it and standing still is prey behaviour.
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u/thejester541 Sep 11 '26
I agree with that for black bears, but if that was a grizzly he'd be beef jerky.
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u/Raulr100 Sep 12 '26
I mean this bear and grizzly bears are just different subspecies of brown bear.
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u/NeedNameGenerator Sep 11 '26
If it's brown, lie down. If it's black, fight back. If it's white, say goodnight.
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u/The_Autarch Sep 11 '26
oh he's definitely aware of the bear, but he's also definitely a dumbass because this is not how you're supposed to behave around bears.
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u/Collegenoob Sep 11 '26
Depends on the bear.
This looks like a small bear. The correct course of action is make yourself big and loud.
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u/Bill_Brasky01 Sep 11 '26
The bear took a tester bite out of his leg and he didn't react.
That's when you go nuclear.
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u/Terrorknight141 Sep 11 '26
Link is to your OG comments, so we can go support you.
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u/vita10gy Sep 11 '26
He even signals the car at the 36-38 second mark. I can't tell if he's saying "hold up" or "I'm going to run that way when you keep going", but he's clearly not just oblivious to the car rolling up on them.
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u/tik4life Sep 11 '26
He even gives a quick thumbs-up over his shoulder to the car as it pulls up to the bear (0.38s).
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u/BIOdire Sep 11 '26
He should have turned to face the bear, raised his hands over head, spoke firmly and deeply while backing away. That is how you deal with every kind of bear approaching you unless it is about to make contact, in which case you must determine -is it defensive or predatory in its approach? Because if you play dead for a predatory bear, it's going to eat you.
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u/14_In_Duck Sep 11 '26
The embarrassment stems mainly from the manner in which he stumbled back to his vehicle. Everyone knows you should offer the bear your cocaine first.
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u/MyOtherRideIsTheRoci Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
That's a black bear. Protocol is to make noise and look big, not go still. Guy in the car should have laid on the horn.
Grizzlies are another story....The best way to protect yourself from black bears and grizzlies is to wear bells on your pack so you don't surprise them, and carry pepper spray in case they attack. It's also helpful to identify their scat so you know if they are present in the area. Black bear scat is mounded and dark and grizzly scat is full of little bells and smells like pepper spray.
Edit: I'm wrong. Is apparently Eurasian brown bear. See Griz protocol above.
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u/pankaykays Sep 11 '26
Definitely not a black bear given the euro license plates. Would be the Eurasian brown bear.
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u/andylibrande Sep 11 '26
Thats in Europe and is a Eurasian Brown Bear which is more similar to Grizzlies than black bears in the USA.
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u/samdeed Sep 11 '26
Also an air horn is a great deterrent. You can scare them away before they get too close.
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u/nodiaque Sep 11 '26
Also you can see his finger on top of his left shoulder when the car approach making a 1 which I would interpret as 1 minute (stop, wait, etc). The car coming at the bear made it worst. If you aren't a treat, the bear won't generally attack. But a big car came rushing at him, the bear jumped in defence mode.
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u/mxzf Sep 11 '26
If you aren't a treat, the bear won't generally attack.
Nah, the bear was already doing "lets see how this tastes" nibbles before the car started rolling, the car wasn't the thing that caused problems here.
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u/No-Mathematician8692 Sep 11 '26
Lols absolutely not. This is NOT someone I would like to be with during an emergency.
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u/Ickyfist Sep 11 '26
He made zero correct choices. Your options aren't either to run at full speed or stand still lmao. The correct solution is to calmly walk away while looking at the bear.
That's a young bear too. It's scared but curious. It wants to find out what it can get away with. If you let it just walk up and start biting your leg while you stand there it's going to do that. But it's young so it doesn't know that it has no real reason to be afraid of you yet. It might seem like this was working but it wasn't. If this was an older bear this guy would be dead.
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u/Taurondir Sep 11 '26
I would be more embarassed by the WAY he ran then by the running itself. Also, WHY the weird car touching on the way past?
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u/l5555l Sep 11 '26
Trying to not run into the car. You've never quickly rounded a corner before and put your hand on the wall/object you're going around?
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u/The_Superginge Sep 11 '26
oh ffs, if you're too self conscious about someone thinking you "look gay" then you're more closeted than you care to realise.
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u/Taurondir Sep 13 '26
Weirdly that I have no mention of "gay" and yet here you are commenting. I was pointing out the weird "flaying arm" motions in general.
If I run, I just run, I don't flail my arms UP in the air, it makes zero sense to do so and gives you no speed or balance advantage.
I can't hear any audio either, but if that guy had - following your lead here - ran away in a totally mainly long distance runner athlete-like stance - but made weird "aeeie-AAAAh-yekka-yekka-yekka-kachunk-ding" noises like the Knights Of NI while running away, I would have pointed THOSE out, because my brain also does not automatically do THAT while running away, at least not that I know of.
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u/Familiar-Aerie-1610 Sep 11 '26
Oh dude... you have no idea.
Something REALLY similar happened to my father and I watched it happen.
My old man was trying to figure out an anti-bear lock on a dumpster while at a campsite in Yosemite.
I see a bear sort of just... moseying on over towards the dumpster. Still probably 100+ yds away ...but it's a GIANT fkn bear, everyone in the campsite is reacting to it being here ...except dad.
So, I figure he has to realize the ENTIRE CAMPSITE reacting to something going on right?
I stroll over to moms and ask her "Hey mom ...dad sees the bear, right?"
My mom whips around, sees my dad struggling with the lock and this exchange goes down:
Mom: "{Dad's name}! Come here!" (Bear is like... 15 yds away at this point and heading straight to the dumpster.)
My dad: "Hold on a second, I've almost got this..."
Mom: "{Dad's name}! You need to come here! NOW!" (Bear is like... 5 yds away.)
My dad: "Hold on! I'm almost done!"
Mom: "{Dad's name}! No. You need to come here! NOW!" (Bear is literally on the far side of the dumpster from my dad.)
My dad: "Fine. WHAT?!?!" and starts storming over to where my mom is, and he's all bothered. The bear is coming around the dumpster to where my dad was standing while this is happening. He still has ZERO idea ANYTHING is happening.
My mom just watches him stomp up to her like a toddler. Silently.
Once he's right at her, she makes him turn around... the bear is now trying to figure out the bear lock.
...so, yea. If you see something like this, certainly won't forget it easily.
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u/Feisty-Lawfulness894 26d ago
Why didn't the stupid ass just tell him that there was a bear?
Why didn't either one of you stupid asses just tell him that there was a bear?
Dad doesn't sound very bright, either.
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u/Borge_Luis_Jorges Sep 11 '26
Shouldn't you first take a second to be grateful your father didn't get shredded that day?
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u/Woopigmob Sep 11 '26
Imagine this is you. You tell everybody about the time a bear ran up on you and you faked it out. Then one day you see yourself on the internet and realized somebody saved you from being bitten multiple times and you were just tapping away on your phone oblivious to everything. That would be terrible.
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u/The_Saiyann Sep 11 '26
Why would you not beep your horn to alert him too though??
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u/lvl12 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I work in a lot of bear populated areas (grizzly and black) and I was debating what I'd do it this situation.
I think I'd avoid my first instinct of blaring the horn. Panic induces flight or fight response as seen in the video when the guy notices how fucked he is. In the bear's case it may attack the man when startled. It will more likely run but I wouldn't take that chance.
I think he made the right call. Yelling at the guy to turn around or stay still might have the same effect as the horn. Creeping up with the truck has the effect of a bear hunting another cub only to see its mother creeping up. Suddenly the bear is outnumbered and unlikely to fight
Edit: I just wanted to add that sadly, this bear will likely end up shot. It has no fear of people. It is not normal for a blackbear to come near us and especially abnormal to think about hunting us. People have been feeding this bear and it has learned that humans=food. They can try relocating but bears cover massive areas of territory and will likely end up doing this again. Don't feed the fucking wildlife.
Also given the euro plates this is unlikely to be a black bear lol. Apparently they have a Eurasian black bear?
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u/Dysterqvist Sep 11 '26
Eurasian Brown Bear probably, don’t think we have black bears in Europe (apart from Russia).
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u/TheMightyChocolate Sep 11 '26
This is a brown bear. I am very sure this is in the romanian carpathians on transfagarasan highway
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u/The_Autarch Sep 11 '26
he knows about the bear, but he's freaking out and doesn't know what he's supposed to do. looks like he thinks eye contact will make it angry or something.
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u/horshack_test Sep 11 '26
He's aware of the best and beeping the horn could trigger an unwanted response from the bear.
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u/dw4zemi3 Sep 11 '26
No harm in letting natural selection do its thing.
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u/Michelin123 Sep 11 '26
You're such an edgelord.
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u/SwordfishOk504 Sep 11 '26
As an Aplha Male I would have punched that bear right in the snoot and then fucked his wife.
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u/Tanasiii Sep 11 '26
Actually, very much harm. If you are in a position to stop someone from unknowingly getting fucked up by a bear, and you do nothing, you are a sadisitic human being.
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u/rider5001 Sep 11 '26
I mean beeping the car horn could accidentally escalate the situation. Wild animals can behave unpredictably after all
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u/lordgoofus1 Sep 11 '26
Probs thought about it, but then realised AC/DC was a better sound track for the video.
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u/AdequateSteve Sep 11 '26
I don’t think he was oblivious, I think he was purposely trying to ignore it hoping it’d get bored and leave.
I have no idea if that’s a smart/sane thing to do, but I also tend to avoid bears…
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u/The_Autarch Sep 11 '26
I have no idea if that’s a smart/sane thing to do
it's a stupid thing to do. this is a bear cub. you're supposed to confront them and scare them away. not ignore them until they start wondering what your leg tastes like.
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u/EchoPhi Sep 11 '26
Correct. Here's my post
"Jesus, everytime with you morons posting this. Dude knows it's there. Car is trying to block the bear (which bit him a couple times), rather than scare stranger and be rude by endangering them (closest car) he books for his. Bear is apex and running immediately he'd have been mauled. Dude has bigger balls than anyone who does not realize what is going on.
Find one of the other reposts of this... "
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u/irbilldozer Sep 11 '26
Every time this get's posted...it is proven that the guy was aware of the bear. The video is clipped intentionally to make it look the way it does. His entire family was running back to the car and he did not have time, so he did the smart thing and froze, instead of tempting the bear to chase him.
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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot Sep 11 '26
Yeah it's very obvious, people are so excited call someone dumb they ignore their eyes
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u/EchoPhi Sep 11 '26
Said the same thing. And everyone commenting "he's a Darwin winner" or the like, are in fact the Darwin winners in this situation.
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u/darkerfury Sep 11 '26
Drop the link to the longer video
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u/Endiamon Sep 11 '26
You don't need a longer video, it's in the first second of this video. You may have to zoom and rewatch a few times, but it's very obvious.
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u/Jack_Shid Sep 11 '26
As others have pointed out, this guy knew the bear was there the whole time. He was merely remaining frozen in an attempt to keep from being attacked. He wasn't oblivious to that nose bumping the back of his calf. Once the bear nipped his leg, he decided to run.
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u/EchoPhi Sep 11 '26
Jesus, everytime with you morons posting this. Dude knows it's there. Car is trying to block the bear (which bit him a couple times), rather than scare stranger and be rude by endangering them (closest car) he books for his. Bear is apex and running immediately he'd have been mauled. Dude has bigger balls than anyone who does not realize what is going on.
Find one of the other reposts of this...
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u/BIOdire Sep 11 '26
Having his back turned will also get him mauled. I'm a hunter who lives in best country, he should have been square to the bear while backing away. He may have big balls, but he also fucked up.
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u/EchoPhi Sep 11 '26
Then you would know when a bear is that close, the worst thing to do is startle it by facing it down... Sure from a distance square up. Not when it's a foot from you. Hunting lightning bugs does not make you a hunter "in best country"
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u/PIPBOY-2000 Sep 11 '26
Now you see how some apes got eaten as we were evolving. Then natural selection stopped and we get these specimens
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Sep 11 '26
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u/NathanCollier14 Sep 11 '26
Yes
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u/bac5665 Sep 11 '26
Yeah, we have stone phones going back to late H. Erectus fossils, although only in Africa, so they probably weren't adopted widely until H. Sapiens left Africa.
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u/N95-TissuePizza Sep 11 '26
At this point I think the bear deserves to have one juicy bite. Just one. So that this dumb arse will learn to respect nature.
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u/alberto_467 Sep 11 '26
"respect nature"? He's standing on an asphalt road, there's hardly any disrespect nor any "nature"
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u/simplyyjohnny Sep 11 '26
Do you think it's a movie set surrounding that asphalt road?
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u/alberto_467 Sep 11 '26
I think a human just standing on a human-built piece of infrastructure is not disrespecting nature.
Did he go in whatever is surrounding that asphalt road? No.
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u/trashmonger3000 Sep 11 '26
When there's a mosquito flying around your head inside your home when you are in your bed, your better respect nature!
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u/jerinx Sep 11 '26
Yes, respect nature. It is the "you are near something that is unpredictable/dangerous and you need to be aware of it" kind of respect, not "bow before it" respect.
And this dude has the awareness of a donut.
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u/morete Sep 11 '26
This is nonsense, 99% of us could be snuck up on by a bear we didn't know was there. You're all acting like Ross Gellar with 'Unagi'
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u/Vassago81 Sep 11 '26
Animals love asphalt road because it give them a lot of tasty roadkill treats to eat in the early morning
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u/jamcoding Sep 11 '26
absolutely not. Isn't it ranger protocol or something to kill a bear once it bites a human?
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u/They-Call-Me-Taylor Sep 11 '26
I'm almost positive he was trying to ignore it in the hope it would go away. Once he saw that wasn't going to happen, he ran.
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u/ChopSueyMusubi Sep 11 '26
Yeah, at the beginning of the video, he and the other person were actually facing the direction the bear came from. The other person managed to run inside the car and close the door. The main guy realized he couldn't make it into the car in time, so he just froze and tried to not provoke the bear. The person filming this video tried to create some separation so the main guy could run into his car.
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u/oupheking Sep 11 '26
The number of people in the comments here who don't get that the guy knows the bear is there but is trying to ignore it and not look at it is genuinely astounding
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u/Ashamed-Simple-8303 Sep 12 '26
Once the standing still fails, isnt offense the better method with a bear this small? Running just triggers a hunting response?
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u/DR_whyWHY Sep 11 '26
don't insult pigeons, they at least have enough spacial awareness to notice approaching car
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u/g7c7a7 Sep 11 '26
I have almost run one over with a lawnmower because they won't move until it literally touches them.
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u/Jovian09 Sep 11 '26
Not where I'm from, they don't. the roads are littered with their idiot corpses
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u/Oneirox Sep 11 '26
I’ve unfortunately witnessed a pigeon not move when a stopped bus started moving again. Was right in the path of the tires. Sounded like someone popping a bag of chips.
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u/eugenesbluegenes Sep 11 '26
That's the deal. They get out of the way of our cars and we look the other way on the statue defecation.
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u/Bohzee Sep 11 '26
Just as people. Then again, there are many cases where pigeons (and humans, too!) just don't notice because they used to cars breaking/evading, only to find out the fkd up.
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Sep 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/Nonsenser Sep 11 '26
He is using the phone to look at the bear to avoid eye contact. He can't make it to his car so this was the right decision as not to trigger predatory chasing in the bear.
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u/SZEfdf21 Sep 11 '26
Isn't he just standing still as to not startle the bear?
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u/nabrok Sep 11 '26
No, he's oblivious. Note the reaction when he finally does see the bear at the end of the video.
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u/ChopSueyMusubi Sep 11 '26
I suggest you rewatch the first few seconds of the video for better context.
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u/GoldenKnight239 Sep 11 '26
He even moves his leg because he feels something. Truly natural selection at play here
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u/Nonsenser Sep 11 '26
He knows the bear is there, he is hoping it will leave him alone if he acts uninterested and unafraid.
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u/thepeopleseason Sep 11 '26
Note also the complete lack of awareness that a damned car is driving up next to him.
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u/Capital_Figure_408 Sep 11 '26
I've seen this clip. He is standing still intentionally because he doesn't want to trigger any aggression.
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u/EchoPhi Sep 11 '26
You are correct. He handled it the right way as did the person filming trying to help. To top it off he didn't endanger the other driver by opening their door.
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u/Cielo11 Sep 11 '26
He knew he was looking at the bear at the start... He points his finger at the car at 0:36 to say stop.
The car caused the bear to get more animated and that's when he runs.
Luckily I've never been in this position, but standing still is normally considered the correct thing to do?
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u/itsfrankgrimesyo Sep 12 '26
Let’s just sit and watch because it’s funny instead of alerting the guy who might potentially get killed.
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u/mazurkian Sep 13 '26
The guy sees the bear and is trying to ignore it. It even bites the guy's leg. It's not until the bear gets in front of him and rears up that he finally bails. He knows the bear is coming, he knows the car is pulling up. If we had the actual audio we'd have a much better idea of how it went down.
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u/Bank_Gothic Sep 11 '26
Honestly, him standing in the road seems dumber than not noticing a little black bear. A car is way more likely to kill you than what is essentially a large squirrel.
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u/Dilaudipenia Sep 11 '26
It’s a brown bear. This happened in Romania.
The bigger question is, where is momma bear?
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u/Orange_Tang Sep 11 '26
Do cars not have horns in Europe? Probably would have scared the bear enough to run off and it would have got this fucking smoothbrain to turn around and stop zoning out staring at the fucking hillside.
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u/pdurante Sep 11 '26
Dude is gonna be the first one eaten in a zombie apocalypse.
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u/cheni78 Sep 11 '26
The guy saw the bear sneaking up on him and tried to ignore it. He probably thought that if he ran the bear would chase him and beat him to his car. You're also not supposed to run from predators as that will ignite an instinct to chase and kill.
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u/billabong360 Sep 12 '26
5 full business days to get in and close the door once he got there. I couldn't believe it.
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u/uptwolait Sep 11 '26
I was waiting for him to swat at whatever was touching his calf, slap the bear on his nose, and turn on the terror ride.
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u/Thesmokingcode Sep 11 '26
Bears can sneak up on you pretty easily.
I was swapping some stale gas put of my mower and I heard a slight rustle like maybe a rabbit 15 feet away slight, kept working and I peek over my shoulder to grab something and theres a fucking black bear less than 5 feet from me completely ignoring me eating some trash it stole from my dumpster.
I slowly crept back inside my house and grabbed my shotgun to scare it off and by the time I got back he was gone. It was terrifying.
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u/Shermans_ghost1864 Sep 11 '26
A baby is born, grows up, goes to park, is killed and eaten, a bear cub is born—the cycle of life!
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u/Iranon79 20d ago
Yes, those are incredibly dangerous... but can't really fault the bear for being young and curious.
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u/hyteck9 Sep 11 '26
Little guy was just curious! ( what kind of flavor was inside)