Now that most people are walking around with high-end cameras built into their smartphones, the risks they’re willing to take for a slice of social media fame are getting worse.<\/p>\n
Case in point: a Facebook reel<\/a> of a tourist taking an up-close picture and\/or video of an elk. Colorado Wild Images<\/a> posted the clip, sparking outrage online.<\/p>\n “She’s got it coming,” wrote one commenter after watching the video.<\/p>\n This scenario doesn’t appear to have escalated to anything dangerous, but animal attacks on people who are trying to capture the perfect shot are on the rise. A study on human-wildlife interactions, released by the Berryman Institute at Utah State University, indicates as much.<\/a><\/p>\n That high-definition shot doesn’t matter much on the way to the hospital, and the kind of animal in the frame is often more dangerous than it appears.<\/p>\n For instance, the animals responsible for the most attacks in Alberta, Canada, from 2011 to 2021, were elk. According to the St. Albert Gazette, there were 2,299 elk attacks<\/a> throughout that timeframe, versus only 431 grizzly bear attacks. That’s just over five times more often than an animal most people fear outright, compared to one associated with calm and placidity.<\/p>\n Though this clip was taken in Colorado, an elk is an elk, and a female may attack if she fears her calves are in danger. The same goes for a male elk in the rut. A human being is nothing compared to the raw strength of these animals or the sharpness of their hooves.<\/p>\n That’s not to mention the danger to the elk. If it had chosen to attack, euthanization could be in its near future.<\/p>\n Of course, this is not an indictment of people’s love for animals and the startling, serene beauty of wildlife. But increased human and wildlife interactions reduce animals’ fear of human presence, drawing them closer to populated areas.<\/p>\n Most of the post’s comments pointed out the dangers of these interactions.<\/p>\n “Way too close!!” responded one user.<\/p>\n “It’s gonna take them getting hurt before they learn the lesson,” wrote another Facebook user.<\/p>\n Join our free newsletter<\/a> for good news<\/strong> and useful tips<\/strong>, and don’t miss this cool list<\/a> of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that most people are walking around with high-end cameras built into their smartphones, the risks they’re willing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":332919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[15225,1066,165069,159,67,132,68,13581,837,165070],"class_list":{"0":"post-332918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-attacks","9":"tag-facebook","10":"tag-grizzly-bear-attacks","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-utah-state-university","16":"tag-wildlife","17":"tag-wildlife-interactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115438265518455001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}