Driver Films Up-Close Encounter with Bear: 'No Thank You'

One driver got up close and personal with a hungry bear after the ursine creature sniffed its way right up to the car door.

Alexander Aman, a wildlife biologist and drone pilot, filmed the strange encounter, which took place near Redby, Minnesota, on Monday afternoon, and uploaded the footage to Youtube.

The video shows the bear casually strolling on the road before investigating Aman's car.

"How's it going?" Aman can be heard saying in the video as the bear approached. "YOLO? You don't even care huh?"

"Holy schnikes. No, thank you," he then said as the bear placed its paws onto the driver's side door and peered in, sniffing the air. "What can I do for you?"

Aman had a bag of trash in his trunk, which may be what piqued the bear's attention.

Bears across Minnesota and the rest of the U.S. are in the process of slowly emerging from hibernation. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the state is only home to one species of bear—the black bear—of which there are between 12,000 and 15,000 specimens.

"Bears in Minnesota come out of the dens in late March and early April, but do not typically leave the den area until mid-April," Andrew N. Tri, the Forest Wildlife and Populations Research Group project leader at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, previously told Newsweek.

Many mammals go into hibernation in the winter months, entering a long period of low metabolic activity, low body temperature, slower breathing, and a lower heart rate. As the spring temperatures gradually increase, the bears begin to wake up.

"Males and solitary bears seem to leave first. Females with cubs remain until the cubs are strong enough to climb. We don't know the mechanism as to why they leave the dens, but green-up doesn't typically happen until mid-May, so there is some time in which bears do not have access to much food and continue to rely on their fat reserves," Tri said.

Contrary to how humans may feel after a long period of not eating, the bears are not that hungry when they awaken, as their metabolisms need a while to ramp back up again.

"They are not inherently dangerous at all. It takes time for them to want to eat again, and they will start eating green vegetation (grass, clover, wetland plants) or whatever acorns lay on the ground and did not rot over winter. They will occasionally consume garbage or birdseed that humans fail to properly secure in the spring," Tri said.

The bear in the video may have caught the scent of the trash inside the car, or simply any other powerful scent. According to the National Park Service, bears associate any strong scent with "food," including sealed bottles, soaps, cosmetics, and soda cans.

This is why the DNR recommends not leaving out birdseed, cleaning garbage bins regularly to avoid odors, and locking up trash, as well as removing fallen fruit from yards to avoid unwanted ursine visitors.

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