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Earlier this year, a woman who was visiting Yellowstone National Park went viral for doing something incredibly dumb: getting as close as she could to a grizzly bear and her three cubs. Now, after the Yellowstone bear-charge video went viral, the 25-year-old Illinois woman has been sentenced to four days in jail. She also has to pay a pile of fines and is barred from the park for a year.
Samantha Dehring, the woman in the video, pleaded guilty to willfully remaining, approaching, and photographing wildlife within 100 yards. Another charge that was related to “feeding, touching, teasing, frightening, or intentionally disturbing wildlife” was dropped as part of the deal. According to reports, her fines total a little over $2,000.
Dehring was at Roaring Mountain in Yellowstone National Park on May 10, 2021 when she, along with a few other visitors, noticed a sow grizzly and three cubs. The other visitors backed away slowly and got into their cars, while Dehring continued to film and take photos. In the video, Dehring films the bear on her phone. The bear, feeling protective of her cubs, bluff charges her. Dehring appears relatively unperturbed and continues filming before walking away quickly.
“Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish. Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist,” Bob Murray, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming, said in a statement. “Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are, indeed, wild. 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.”
Yellowstone National Park requires that visitors must stay at least 75 feet away from bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes. Visitors must stay 300 feet away from bears and wolves. The requirements are there for the visitors’ safety as much as the animals’ — and Derhring learned her lesson the hard way. It could, however, been a much harder lesson if the bear wanted it to be.
