Facebook Brown Bear Close Encounter Goes Viral

A Facebook brown bear close encounter has gone viral two years after user Drew Hamilton of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game posted it to Facebook.

Luckily for Hamilton, the bear wasn’t hungry that day. If it had been, there would have been very little Hamilton could have done about it.

(See Grizzly Man if you don’t believe us.)

Nevertheless, Hamilton posted the one minute, 26 second video to his page in August of 2012, but it wasn’t until CNN and the Daily Mail hit on the story this week that it took off.

When the Daily Mail reported on the Facebook brown bear, it was just at 22,000 shares. By the end of the day, it had exceeded 42,100, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

It’s rare that a human being can get this close to these massive creatures and live to tell about it. But surprisingly, the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, where this was filmed, has never had an incident where a brown bear went crazy and bon appetite-d all over a tourist or wildlife enthusiast.

They do, however, like to feed on salmon.

If you want a better idea of just how scary this brown bear close encounter is, give it a look:

http://youtu.be/MVhrN2pI2X8

We’re not sure about you guys, but we would have needed a change of knickers after that. Many of the Facebook commenters felt the same way.

“Wow you’re nuts!… Holy crap… Oops I crapped my pants!… Was wonderful to watch but you are NUTS and eh-eh when he moved close amazing — I cannot imagine!… I didn’t know bears understood ‘hey!hey!hey!hey!hey!’. You got balls buddy, but that has to be amazing as long as you live through it.”

This isn’t the first time in the recent past that we’ve shared some bear hijinks where these giants get a little too close for comfort.

Earlier this month, we shared with you the story of a hammock-loving black bear, who decided to nap in the first one he found available (also caught on video).

Luckily, in both incidents no one was hurt. If things were going to get monster-movie gory, we definitely think it would have been with Drew Hamilton.

That’s why the park is reminding visitors that it’s “important for campers to remember that they’re in the bear’s home and not the other way around.”

Message received, loud and clear!

What do you think kept the Facebook brown bear from eating Hamilton’s head?