After This Woman Went To Take A Photo Of A Bear, She Realized She’d Made A Massive Mistake

You might believe that the woman had nothing much to worry about. After all, bears don’t want much to do with people. But as they originally developed in areas with no trees, they have an awareness of possible danger when humans come near that can make them defensive. Particularly momma bears — approaching a cub can be bad news.

So when the grizzly realized that the woman was nearby, it was probably alarmed. And the woman likely understood that she was making a big mistake. In fact, she was indulging in an error of judgment that left a local official shaking his head and describing her behavior as “absolutely foolish.”

Yellowstone’s renowned for the variety of its animals, as well as for its spouting hot water, of course. The numbers alone are impressive, with upwards of 60 types of mammals, plenty of amphibians, reptiles, and fish in the streams and ponds, plus close to 300 different bird species overhead.

The mammals are perhaps what interest us most: bears are of course part of the mammal family. And Yellowstone actually has the greatest amount of mammals of all the contiguous U.S. states. The area contains an intriguing mix of predators and prey, with the former consisting of not just black and grizzly bears, but also coyotes, lynx, wolves, wolverines, and mountain lions.

You’re quite likely to see a bear in Yellowstone, though if you do, it’s most likely going to be a black bear. That’s North America’s most common bear, and in the past, they were what you’d think of when the word Yellowstone was mentioned. Up until the 1960s, you could even feed them at the roadside.

Black bears don’t pose too much danger to humans — only a single injury every half-decade is down to the animals. And they don’t face much in the way of danger either, with hardly any predators around and hunting not being allowed within the park. They tend to die of old age, though they sometimes meet their end when they clash with a hungry wolf pack or grizzly.

But while they’re often seen in Yellowstone, black bears remain a bit of a mystery. Not much is known about them, with researchers having tended to focus on grizzly bears instead. The most recent study of the park’s black variety took place way back during the 1960s when they had good access to human food. Scientists do sometimes slap a collar on one to track it, though.

The other type of bear native to Yellowstone, the grizzly, is much less common. That wasn’t always true: once upon a time grizzlies were spread across the nation’s prairies. But now they aren’t much seen. You’d know it if you came across one, though: they’re usually bigger than black bears and have bulkier shoulders. They’re also a lot fiercer.

These days, in the contiguous United States grizzlies can only be found in Northwest Montana and Yellowstone. They were put on the endangered species list in the mid-1970s. Due to the enormous distances that they tend to travel, they’re likely to come across people. And that hasn’t usually ended well for the bears — until their listing, their future chances looked bleak.

Grizzlies are big animals, with males weighing as much as 700 pounds. That’s up to twice the size of a black bear. They also pack longer claws, and they can live until they’re about 30. The animals have been in North America for around 50,000 years, and technically they’re part of the brown bear species.

We mentioned the huge ranges grizzlies cover: they can be as large as a couple of thousand square miles for a male and more than 500 for a female. If one’s on your tail, don’t think you can escape up a tree. These bears can climb! And water’s not safe, either. They’re perfectly happy to take a dip. They like to snack on any meat they can catch, but they aren’t fussy: they’ll also chow down on grass, roots, and pine nuts.

The picture’s improved since 1975, thankfully. From a low point of below 140, numbers have risen to more than 700. And the animals now take up much more of the park. Those figures seem unlikely to rise much, though, with scientists observing that the amount of females giving birth has become steady. Like black bears, they’ve been discouraged from feeding on garbage.

You can still occasionally catch sight of a grizzly by the road, though. Mind you, you’d need sharp eyes, because they’re mostly around when the light is low, or it’s nighttime. Still, if you’re somewhere near Yellowstone Lake or in the Lamar or Hayden valleys, for instance, they’re sometimes visible.

One of the animals a grizzly loves to munch on is the elk. These creatures provide food for wolves, too, especially in the winter, though during that season they’re usually elsewhere on lower ground. Elks have an important impact on the plant life of Yellowstone — they love to eat! And that in turn has a knock-on effect on all sorts of other species.

If you know someone who’s been to Yellowstone, chances are they took a picture of a bull elk. The animals’ magnificent antlers make for great photos. Did you know, though, that each year, they shed their “rack” of antlers and grow a whole new set! It’s true. You have to look out for discarded antlers during the springtime.

Now, those antlers do look sharp, and it’s no fun to be caught on the end of them. And that can happen. If you bother males in late summer and early fall, when they mate, they can become really combative, so it’s a good idea to give them a lot of space. The females are also prone to attack in the late spring, when they bear their calves.

In fact, to stay safe in Yellowstone, the park service strongly advises not going near the wildlife at all. They might look as though they’re relaxed, munching on a patch of grass, or slumbering on a warm afternoon, but these creatures can turn nasty if they feel threatened. And this is just as true of less obviously fierce animals such as bison as it is of wolves or bears.

One thing that’s likely to make the animals combative is getting them hooked on human eats. If they become addicted to our picnics, then they may become a nuisance and have to be put down. So visitors to the park are asked not to feed the creatures and to ensure that food’s well out of sight while it isn’t being eaten.

The animals aren’t the only danger in Yellowstone, either. No, the area’s well known for its hot waters. These are a serious peril for the unwary, so visitors should always stick to trails and boardwalks where there are hot springs. And there are plenty of these water features: in excess of 10,000 overall, including hundreds of geysers.

The hot springs start out as simple rainwater, which passes down into the rock beneath the park. There it’s heated up by magma and rises to the surface again, with nothing to stop it — and now, of course, it’s hot water.

When this process occurs under Yellowstone, a geyser can be the result. And the park contains more than any other place on the planet. The most famous is, of course, Old Faithful, but there are others of all shapes and sizes. These include the Earth’s biggest: Steamboat Geyser, which jets water as much as 400 feet into the air.

So when Carol Stream, Illinois, resident Samantha Dehring stopped off at Roaring Mountain with a bunch of folks in May 2021, they probably wanted to see the hot springs there. The springs make the mountain hiss, rather than roar, these days. But the visitors got a surprise when they looked out and saw a grizzly mom with her three babies.

Most of the people with Dehring certainly knew better than to hang around when a grizzly bear came near. They carefully sneaked off and took shelter in cars. But Dehring decided that the time was right to get some wildlife photographs, and she stayed out in the open to keep snapping.

Now we did say that the authorities urge you to keep away from wildlife. And Dehring was doubtless aware of these rules. They say you should go no closer than 100 yards to a bear — and that’s just plain good sense. Those animals have sharp claws!

Dehring’s lucky not to have found that out for herself. Because to her surprise, she discovered that not backing away was a huge error. The momma bear decided that the Illinois woman was a threat and started moving quickly towards her. Grizzlies can get up to 40 mph, so it’s no surprise that Dehring took fright and rapidly departed.

The charging momma bear put Dehring in serious danger. If she’d been caught, it could’ve been very nasty. Bob Murray, acting U.S. Attorney, was in no doubt of that, stressing the woman’s good fortune to have escaped unharmed. He noted, “Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are, indeed, wild.”

Murray explained why it’s essential to move away from bears if you see them, saying, “The park is not a zoo where animals can be viewed within the safety of a fenced enclosure. They roam freely in their natural habitat and when threatened will react accordingly.” This bear certainly did, which is confirmed by footage of the incident.

The prosecutor had absolutely no doubt what he thought of Dehring’s actions, and he didn’t hold back when describing them. Murray added in no uncertain terms, “Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish. Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist.”

It took a while for the park rangers to find out who the woman who’d been so foolhardy was. They had footage of the episode and were able to share it publicly. People were more than willing to confirm that the terrified star of the video was Dehring — and by August she was facing charges.

A couple of charges were brought against the Illinoisan initially, though one was later dropped. The one that stuck was “Willfully remaining, approaching, and photographing wildlife within 100 yards,” and she had no option other than to plead guilty. After all, Dehring had been filmed in the act. So she had a brief hearing in a Wyoming court during October 2021.

And the judge in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY, didn’t take the crime lightly. Perhaps to her surprise, Dehring received jail time for it. She got four days in chokey and 12 months on probation. On top of that, she was fined a cool thou and also had to hand over the same amount to an animal protection charity.

If all that wasn’t enough punishment, Dehring was deprived of the opportunity of repeating the crime as well, at least for the time being. That’s right — she was handed a 12-month ban from the park, too, though we imagine she won’t mind that part of the sentence much.

At the time of writing, it hasn’t been publicly revealed whether Dehring did her time in the slammer, which was due to occur during October 2021 in a Montana facility. So we don’t know what she made of it, especially as she hasn’t made any statements about the punishment, and her lawyer’s kept quiet about it as well.

But it’s probably fair to say that Dehring learnt her lesson — and one that’s worth learning. Grizzly moms can be aggressive if you go near their young. Mommas are thought to be responsible for seven out of every ten killings committed by the bears. And in the past ten years, eight people have met their ends in the park during encounters with grizzlies.

Back in April 2021 a man who was familiar with the area, Charles Mock, was savaged by a grizzly bear while fishing. Though he was carrying bear spray, it’s uncertain whether he had the chance to put it to work. Mock suffered grave wounds, and worse was to follow. He didn’t survive the ensuing operation, falling victim to a stroke.

The next day, a seven-strong team went to take a look at the place where Mock had been attacked. A mature male bear charged them, and he couldn’t be stopped with spray. Sadly, the animal had to be destroyed. Nearby lay the remains of a moose, and the conclusion was that the bear could well have been fighting to defend his kill.

Back during the summer of 2011 grizzlies struck in the area of Hayden Valley. In two different attacks, bears killed hikers. A couple of years later, a pair of visitors were more fortunate —though assaulted by the animals, they lived to tell the tale. But another fatal clash involving a hiker occurred in 2015, after a momma bear had been spotted nearby.

But you shouldn’t get the wrong impression from scary stories of the rare times when bears do attack. The truth is that it’s a very uncommon occurrence. In the four decades after 1979, bears hurt a little over 40 people out of the 110 million visitors who came to Yellowstone. So the park service is keen to let you know that’s about the same risk as being hit by lightning.

Even so, only a fortnight after Dehring had her close encounter with a grizzly, there was another attack. A hiker in his late 30s came to grief when a bear mauled his legs. Luckily, though, in this case, he managed to escape.