Sometimes they say you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you, but every so often, the bear may just have a little sit down with you instead. Drew Hamilton is an employee of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game who was camping at the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge. He was watching other bears fish in the river below when a huge Alaskan brown bear walks up to his campsite and sits down right next to him.
Thankfully, Hamilton kept his composure. The bear appears to be pretty calm and, although it is definitely a natural response, acting scared and screaming/running may have agitated the bear into action (and/or one or more of the other bears down in the river below). He managed to capture this incredible footage on a very close encounter, before the bear eventually walks away again.
McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge is the home of the world’s highest concentration of wild brown bears thanks to the area’s abundant salmon population. According to their website, at least 144 individual bears can be spotted on the river over the course of the summer and up to 74 bears have been spotted in a single encounter. In order to protect humans and the bears, visitors receive permits to access the viewing area via a lottery system.
