Main image via The New York Times + Il Globo
Sometimes, all you want to do is to go hiking and piking up pine buds, but suddenly a bear turns up… Just like this boy from Italy.
via GIPHY
12-year-old Alessandro Breda and his family were hiking in the Adamello-Brenta Nature Park in Trentino in northern Italy, when they had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with a sizable brown bear.
The boy was picking the buds of the mugo pine tree – a shrubby evergreen that grows low to the ground, which are used to make syrup; when the bear seemingly appeared from the bushes.
Reacting very calmly, Alessandro slowly made his way down the scrubby hill on tiptoes. The incident was recorded by his mother’s boyfriend, Loris Calliari, who quietly told the boy to walk towards him and not turn his back to the bear.
“Come, Ale, come,” Loris is heard saying on the video. “Don’t turn your back to him.”
Image via The New York Times
The brown bear continues to stalk the boy down the hill but Alessandro remains calm and slowly makes his way towards his family that’s at the bottom of the hill.
The boy only appears to loose his cool when his grandmother – who’s waiting below, becomes aware of the bear and begins howling in fear.
“Stop! Stop!” Alessandro quickly tells her.
According to reports, Alessandro’s incredible calm composure did not come by by accident. In an interview with Italian broadcaster RAI, the boy noted that he had recently watched a video on how to behave if you run into a bear.
“I’d learned that if you yell, the bear becomes agitated and becomes more aggressive,” he said.
Experts have noted that Alessandro did exactly what he was supposed to when encountering a bear. He kept his cool, he didn’t yell, and walked away slowly.
Claudio Groff, the coordinator of the large carnivores division of the Forestry and Wildlife Department of the Autonomous Province of Trento said that “the bear was clearly not aggressive, and the boy behaved well.”
Marco Galaverni, scientific director of WWF Italy, noted that such close-range encounters were rare in the Alps. The director also noted that the bear was not behaving in an aggressive manner and that it was “merely curious about a child with something in his hand.”
“When a bear is feeling aggressive, it makes that pretty clear,” he added.
Image via Il Globo
Alessandro, Loris, his mother and other family members had encountered the bear during a hike in Brenta Dolomites, above 6,500 feet. The family had gone to pick the pine buds together.
“I’m pretty sure that the bear had been sleeping, because we didn’t see it coming up,” Loris noted.
As Loris had watched the bear-safety video with Alessandro, he too knew what to do upon encountering a bear. He felt confident that the bear would not attack, which is why he took the video.
In a TV interview, the boy said that he loved nature and animals and that he thought the bear had “behaved well” towards him.
According to Loris, Alessandro was not at all shaken by his close encounter with the huge bear and the boy can’t wait to go hiking again.
His mother and Loris however are less enthused by this notion.
Image via Castanet
We’re super impressed by Alessandro’s ability to keep calm during this intense situation. We know we’d totally be freaking out!
Would you be calm if you encountered a bear? What do you think would be your first reaction? Let us know!
Info via The New York Times