Bear Narrowly Dodges Train While Enjoying Snack on the Tracks in Harrowing Video
The Weather Channel shared a harrowing video on Saturday, April 20th of a bear who was snacking on train tracks in Banff National Park, Canada. The huge bear wasn't paying attention and didn't know the danger it was in as a train barreled towards it. Fortunately, two onlookers did and stepped in to help.
The men can be heard saying in the video that the bear shouldn't be on the tracks. In the video's caption, The Weather Channel said that the men brought a whole new meaning to "the call of the wild". Watch on to see how close the bear comes to meeting the train face-to-face as it headed its way.
That was hard to watch. I could feel myself tense up when I heard the whistle of the approaching train. The huge grizzly bear barely made it to safety with just seconds left to spare before the train sped by. The Weather Channel commenters had a lot to say about the close call. One commenter said the bear was, "Beary lucky". @ChaCha wasn't buying that they helped, "The bear felt the vibration of the tracks. Their yelling was incidental to the bear moving. But they cared enough to put themselves in danger!" @Mol shared, "It that was The Boss, he’s already survived getting hit by a train twice!"
Related: Black Bear Crashes Family's Picnic and Mom's Reaction Is On-Point
More about The Boss, Banff's Most Famous Bear
I write a lot about animals here on Pet Helpful and was surprised that I'd never heard of The Boss. I did a Google search and found another article that had more details about this encounter at Peta Pixel. The article identified the man who recorded The Boss on the tracks as videographer and photographer Andy Arts, who originally shared the video on his Instagram account. It also confirmed that the bear was indeed The Boss, "The Boss along with another bear known as Split Lip are the two largest, toughest, and most famous grizzlies in Banff National Park."
The article shares, "Arts says that he was watching The Boss for 20 minutes as he was eating grain from the tracks. The filmmaker then heard a train whistle and ran towards The Boss yelling for it to move away."
The article also confirmed that The Boss and Split Lip have both been struck by trains before because they snack on grains that they find on the train tracks. Parks Canada staff has tried to use 'hazing' to keep the bears away from the train tracks, but the food they find there is too easy to pass up. Because of this, Parks Canada is "implementing a no-stopping zone along the Bow Valley Parkway in Banff National Park to protect the two bears that have been persistently showing up along the railway tracks."
A to Z Animals had this to say about The Boss, "Reportedly he’s been hit by at least one train during his twenty years of expeditions. Imagine the scene, a train barreling down a railroad track at 70+ miles per hour, and a giant 600-pound grizzly facing it down and living to tell the tale...now that’s a boss!"
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