More than 20 years after the horrifying death of Timothy “Grizzly Man” Treadwell, a few young bear fanatics are returning to the wild — not to commune with the grizzlies, as famously explored in Werner Herzog’s stomach-churning 2005 documentary, but to chase online clout.
A clip circulating on Reddit shows a heart-pounding moment from a nearly 12-hour livestream filmed in the wilderness of Alaska. In the video, the popular streamers Maya Higa and FaZe Adapt sit together on a log, chatting nonchalantly as a massive grizzly bear lumbers toward them.
“I think this is the same one that came over here earlier,” Higa says.
Having accepted that it’s “too late to move” without provoking the bear, as they muse in the video, the streamers can only watch as the creature charges full-sprint into the adjacent river to snag a fish.
“You got that bro?” Adapt asks the cameraman. “That’s you. That’s all you bro.”
While Higa is well known for running a wildlife sanctuary in Texas — a role she fuses with her online personality to educate viewers on conservation — it’s hard to imagine either of the streamers have much experience around wild bears.
Even Treadwell, who spend thirteen summers in Alaska compiling some 100 hours of bear footage, wasn’t even remotely prepared for his encounters, evidenced by his tragic death at the hands of one of his beloved grizzlies.
All in all, the stunt perfectly captures the current state of the attention economy, in which common sense is commonly traded for viral clips. We just hope that this is the closest these two ever come to a wild bear — for their sake, as well as for the critters they’re trying to film.
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