Yellowstone tourist, 25, is jailed for four days after getting within yards of grizzly bear and her three cubs to try and take a photo
- Samantha Dehring, 25, was roughly 15 feet away from the grizzly bear and her three cubs at Yellowstone Park as she tried to snap a picture
- In a video recorded by another visitor, the mama bear charges at Dehring
- Other visitors warned Dehring she was too close, but she did not listen to them
- Dehring admitted for intentionally disturbing and photographing wildlife within 100 yards at a federal court
- She will now serve four days behind bars, a year of unsupervised probation and pay two $1,000 fines
- Dehring also received a one-year ban from Yellowstone National Park
An Illinois woman has been jailed for four days after a video showed her approaching within 15 feet away of a grizzly bear and her cubs at Yellowstone National Park as she tried to take a photo.
Samantha Dehring, 25, was jailed for four days and given a year of probation after pleading guilty at U.S. District Court on Thursday to willfully remaining, approaching, and photographing wildlife within 100 yards.
Dehring was caught on cell phone video approaching the bears in the Roaring Mountain area of the park on May 10.
In the video, a mama bear can be seen briefly charging at Dehring, who holds a cellphone in her hands directed at the animals.
The bear then retreats as two of her cubs run to the forest and Dehring walks away while she puts her cellphone inside her pocket.
A person in the background says: 'Oh my god! I got that on video.'
The mama bear briefly charged at Dehring, who walked away, while the cubs ran to the forest
Other visitors tried to warn Dehring not to get too close to the bear, but she didn't listen
When other visitors noticed the animals, they backed off, but Dehring continued to take pictures
Darcie Addington, who recorded the scene from her car window, said that other visitors tried to warn Dehring not to get too close to the bear, but she didn't listen.
'It was terrifying,' Addington told USA Today.
Dehring was also sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation, and told to pay a $1,000 fine, a $1,000 community service payment to Yellowstone Forever Wildlife Protection Fund, a $30 court processing fee and a $10 assessment.
She has also been banned from Yellowstone National Park for a year.
Another count of feeding, touching, teasing, frightening, or intentionally disturbing wildlife was dismissed.
'Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are, indeed, wild. The park is not a zoo where animals can be viewed within the safety of a fenced enclosure. They roam freely in their natural habitat and when threatened will react accordingly,' said Acting United States Attorney Bob Murray.
'Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish. Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist.'
Samantha Dehring, 25, faces federal charges after video surfaced of her standing roughly 15 feet away from a grizzly bear and her cubs because she was trying to take a picture of them
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Yellowstone National Park regulations state that visitors should keep a minimum 100-yard distance from bears at all times and to never feed or approach a bear to take a photo.
The park has experienced a spike in visitors upon reopening from lockdown. There were 438,000 visitors in May compared with 434,000 in 2019 - an 11 percent jump and the busiest May on record.
In May, a ranger shot at a grizzly bear as it charged toward him and a road filled with cars.
The National Park Service has reported an average of one bear attack per year at Yellowstone. But recently, incidents involving grizzly bears have increased. A man was killed by a bear just outside the park in April. And another 39-year-old man was attacked inside the park in May
The National Park Service has registered an average of one bear attack per year at Yellowstone, with three fatal incidents since 2010. But incidents with bears and visitors have increased this year.
A 39-year-old man was injured at Yellowstone in May when he was hiking alone on a trail near Mammoth Hot Springs. He sustained injuries on his legs but managed to hike back on his own.
A man was fatally attacked by a bear just outside the park in April.
The last fatal incident inside the park happened in 2015, when a day hiker was killed by an adult female grizzly bear with two cubs near the Elephant Back Loop Trail in the Lake Village.
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