yellowstone bearYogi clearly does not want to be disturbed. Just two days after a hiker was mauled and killed by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park, an uninvited black bear crashed CNN's taping of a bear-safety story in the same park. I don't know about you, but it sounds to me like these bears are sending us a message, and that message is "Hey you kids, get off my lawn!"

I get it; we're invading their turf. The bear who killed the hiker (the first fatal attack at Yellowstone since 1986) was a mother bear with two cubs; the hiker is said to have accidentally startled her. The second bear, a black bear, seemed to be advancing towards (yet another) hiker named Erin Prophet behind a CNN news crew filming a bear biologist and a park spokesman talking about how NOT to get attacked by a bear. Not only are these bears getting ticked off, it seems they're also developing a sense of humor.

Prophet didn't get hurt by the bear, but it wasn't the news crew who came to her rescue. As she backed away from the advancing animal, she hit the edge of a lake and some helpful kayakers pulled her on board and paddled her to safety. Sounds like a much more effective bear-defense strategy than what the CNN segment was going to recommend (concentrated pepper spray).

Personally, I can't wait to see what the next phase of Operation: Leave Us Bears Alone is going to be. Maybe one will hide in a camper's tent and then ... look who's in your sleeping bag! Surprise! The bears could get their own reality show, which would be kind of similar to Punk'd, except it would be all about the Wild Kingdom reclaiming its habitat through entertaining-yet-threatening practical jokes: You got Bear'd! Check out the CNN video here and tell me those bears aren't up to something: 

Bears, you don't have to worry about me. I can take a hint. I won't be hiking through your backyard anytime soon.

Would you go hiking in Yellowstone right now?

 

Image via CNN