Seattle Kraken mascot Buoy, center John Hayden, and members of the club’s social media team were nearly the subjects of a potential “Grizzly Man” sequel after avoiding an aggressive bear while shooting material in Alaska.
“While we were fishing, we had a pretty close call with a couple bears,” Hayden described to camera shortly after the alarming incident, which was documented and posted to Bouy’s instagram account on Thursday.
In the footage, Hayden and Buoy are seen fishing at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park when what appears to be a large Grizzly bear emerges from the woods behind them and enters the water.
“We got a bear,” Hayden is heard declaring to the crew, who all immediately begin wading away from the clearly hungry predator as it continues to approach them in the shallow river.
“Oh, I gotta break you off now,” the cameraman is heard saying, indicating the shoot was compromised and safety became the priority.
“Oh my God,” a separate member of the crew could be heard exclaiming as it became glaringly obvious the bear was headed straight for them.
Once the hungry mammal reached the center of the waterway, the bear clearly got a glimpse of Buoy’s blue sea troll costume and perceived it as a threat or perhaps a delicious lunch. The growling bear is seen from multiple angles charging at Buoy but it pulled up just short as the message to back off from its selected feeding ground was received loud and clear.
“That last little sprint I was worried for you, Buoy,” Hayden is heard joking once the bear decided to return to its own fishing expedition.
“I don’t want to blame it on Buoy, they were pretty interested in his whole look,” he analyzed in the pair’s debriefing post-encounter. “So, we got out of it okay but it was a close call.”
Grizzly bears, also known as brown bears, are very territorial animals and considered one of the most aggressive on the North American continent, according to the National Park Service. Attacks on humans are rare but it’s recommended people play dead rather than hold their ground if they ever encounter one that decides to engage.
Also, and this probably doesn’t need to be said, but we’ll say it: You probably shouldn’t wear a mascot costume with large unblinking eyes and a grating smile on its face near one as that might also irritate the top-level predator, too.