What would you do if given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view wildlife up close? Well, here's hoping you wouldn't be a "touron."
The popular Instagram account TouronsOfYellowstone (@touronsofyellowstone) highlights such people — a portmanteau of tourists and morons — who make poor decisions while visiting Yellowstone National Park.
In one of the account's latest clips, a black bear and her two cubs are seen crossing a road. Most of the visitors did what is expected, by stopping their cars and giving the bears plenty of room. One "touron," however, decided to stand in the middle of the road, perilously close to the dangerous animals, all to get some close-up pictures.
A voice on the clip could even be heard urging, "Don't go closer," although the same voice spends much of the clip yelling loudly for others to watch, which could have spooked the bears.
"Mom, he obviously knows," another voice adds. "He wants to make the bad decision."
Fortunately, the clip ended without incident. Unfortunately, wildlife frequently has to deal with this type of human behavior.
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"Why are the animals always so kind and smart?" one commenter asked.
Social media is rife with examples of tourists showing poor judgment while at Yellowstone. Some had to make a quick escape after getting too close to some elk. And in a scenario similar to the clip in this article, a man tempted fate by standing in the middle of the road, mere feet from a crossing bison herd.
The National Park Service urges tourists to never approach wildlife at Yellowstone, and in particular, to stay 100 yards away from bears.
Clearly, these visitors didn't obey those rules.
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Absolutely 👏 "I feel sorry for the wildlife," one commenter wrote.
"The issue here is that if the bear protects her cubs from tourons like this she gets killed," another added. "I guess people like this one lose all common sense once they pay to enter [the] park."
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