Published 19:18 IST, July 25th 2020
'Selfie bear' on the loose: Mexico authorities set non-lethal trap to relocate
'Selfie' bear controversy: Mexico authorities set up non lethal trap at the Chipinque Ecological Park to relocate the bear; Petition on change.org goes viral.
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Earlier this week, a video clip which shows a bear interrupting a girl’s selfie went viral on social media. This incident took place in Mexico’s Chipinque Ecological Park. The Mexican authorities said that they had set up various non-lethal traps for the bear in order to relocate it.
Difficult to make out😳
— Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) July 19, 2020
Whether the bear took liking to the girl more or to the selfie.. pic.twitter.com/qYJDgiN6KT
The bear's friendliness and its consequences
Immediately after this, a petition on change.org got more than 135,000 signatures and calls for the beer to be unharmed and left alone. It further raised the concern that people should be kept out of the park because it is the animal’s natural habitat. Also, because this is the time of pandemic and animals can be harmed because of such carelessness.
The video shows two girls walking in the forest when the bear comes and approaches them. The bear stands on his hind legs and starts sniffing the hair one girl. That is when the girl takes out her camera to click a selfie and the precious moment is captured.
After the circulation of the video, Chipinque Ecological Park issued a statement saying, it would take “strict measures” against those visitors who put their lives and the wildlife’s life at risk. The statement said, ‘this type of approach by the black bear to the visitor is an abnormal behaviour caused by humans. The interaction shown in the video should have been avoided. What is indicated is to move away when detecting the presence of the bear and not get closer; however, we see that even the person seeks to take a photo’. The statement further stated that, “Given the above, Chipinque will take strict measures against visitors who put their life and / or wildlife at risk. Remember that Chipinque is a protected natural area, home to wild flora and fauna, so the sighting of mammals is not unusual, and it is the responsibility of the visitor to stay alert during his visit, avoid getting close and report the presence of a bear to our park rangers."
(Image Credits: Twitter/SusantaNanda3)
19:18 IST, July 25th 2020