A man has shared the incredible moment he came across a mother bear and her four cubs out fishing for dinner.
Dylan Skirko was guiding tourists around the Katmai National Park in Alaska, US, when the group decided to follow a river inland.
Soon enough, the 34-year-old spotted a bear.
Keeping his distance, he decided to capture the magical moment with the mother with her four babies following behind her.
The video has over 12,300 views (@dylan_the_grizzly_guy ).
“The bears were looking for fish,” Dylan, a pilot and tour guide, told http://NeedToKnow.co.uk
“We use special techniques to safely be this close; we try to use the same body language to communicate with the bears as they do with themselves.
“Therefore I crouched down low, body language for [a] non-threatening bear, and she decided to come near us
“She had four spring cubs, very rare.
“Most of the time we see one or two.
“The cubs were about seven, and because of our special techniques, she was completely comfortable fishing right in front of us with her cubs.
“She hung out with us for 20 minutes or so, then kept following the river.
“We are very environmentally conscious and aim to have absolutely zero footprint, so we didn’t follow.
“We don’t want to have any effect on their behaviour at all.”
Alaska is the only US state where all three species of North American bears reside – including grizzlies, polar, Kodiak, and black bears – so the odds of running into one are higher than usual.
In fact, in some areas, there is an estimated one bear per every square mile, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Dylan spotted the mother and cubs on 9 September and later uploaded his find to social media.
The post has over 540 likes and plenty of comments from amazed users.
Vicci said: “Beautiful.”
Someone else commented: “We went to Alaska in June I only got to see a bear and her cubs up on the mountain it was priceless it was a dream trip I never forget.”
Meredith added: “Need to come visit and experience this!”
“Gorgeous mama,” said another follower.
“Can’t believe how close you are actually able to be with her,” added someone else.
