First New York City placed a ban on pictures with tigers. Now people have turned their forward-facing cameras to other dangerous animals to snap a selfie showcasing their daring and adventurous sides.
Indeed, tourists visiting South Lake Tahoe in California have begun partaking in bear selfies, an alarming new trend in what Forest Supervisor Nancy Gibs declared “dangerous situations.”
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— ? coconut chanel ? (@lolwhatevr) November 1, 2014
The selfie sensation has gone so viral that the Taylor Creek Visitor Center reports that at the mere sight of a bear, people begin to flock for a chance to snap a pic with the grizzly. “We’ve had mobs of people that are actually rushing toward the bears trying to get a ‘selfie’ photo,” Lisa Herron told USA Today. The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit spokeswoman continued, “We are telling people they need to stay on the trails and they need to stay away form the bears. If a bear has a mind to it can run very fast.”
With warnings about the clear and present danger the interaction can cause going unheeded, officials have considered temporarily shutting down the area.
The threat of shutdown is aimed at preventing attacks like the one that befell 22-year-old Dash Patel. The hiker was stalked and then killed by a black bear in New Jersey last month.
H/T Oddity Central | Photo via jitze1942/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)