Hungry bear in Mexico devours family’s picnic snacks as they sit frozen in silence
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A bear is seen boldly helping itself to the enchiladas, salsa, tacos and french fries on a picnic table in the park.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM ANGELA CHAPA/TIKTOK
Follow topic:
A leisurely birthday picnic turned into a heart-stopping encounter for a family when a ravenous black bear showed up uninvited at Mexico’s Chipinque Ecological Park in Nuevo León.
In a viral video uploaded by TikTok user Angela Chapa on Tuesday, a bear is seen boldly helping itself to the enchiladas, salsa, tacos and french fries on a picnic table in the park, as a woman and her child sat frozen in terrified silence.
The mother has her left arm around the child’s shoulder, pulling him close to her while covering his eyes with her right hand. They flinch at one point when the bear leans towards the child and almost touches his head.
The bear then moves across the picnic table, approaching another girl who sits motionless at the other end of the table. As there is no more food, the bear leaps off the table and leaves.
The video has clocked over 13 million views, with many netizens saying they were holding their breath while watching the clip.
Many also commended the woman’s bravery. “I think the mum was the real bear here protecting her young,” said user veronicasereno547.
Others joke that even bears love Mexican food.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the woman in the video is Silvia Macía. She had travelled to the park on the outskirts of Monterrey city to celebrate the 15th birthday of her son, Santiago, who has Down syndrome.
She told AP: “Santiago is very afraid of animals, a cat or a dog, any animal scares him a lot.”
“That’s why I covered his eyes, because I didn’t want him to see it and scream or run,” she added.
Filming the video was her friend, Ms Angela, who knew that one should never run during a close encounter with a bear.
According to the BBC, the park has warned that black bear sightings have been on the rise in the Monterrey metropolitan area. They have been spotted wandering in parks, residential areas and streets near the mountains.
This is not the first time a bear spotted in the same park has gained Internet fame.
In 2020, a video of a black bear sniffing a visitor’s hair also went viral.
That bear was later caught and castrated, sparking outrage in some quarters. Experts said the episode could have been avoided if park visitors and guides did not feed the bears with food scraps for the sake of taking photos of them up close.
