A boy, a bear and a close call in the mountains of Italy

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New York Times:

Showing remarkable aplomb, 12-year-old Alessandro Breda slowly tiptoes down a scrubby hill during a walk in the Dolomites. “Photo,” he whispers hoarsely to his companion, Loris Calliari, who assures him he’s taking one.

“Come, Ale, come,” says Mr. Calliari. “Don’t turn your back to him.”

“Him” is the sizable brown bear shadowing the boy as he makes his descent during a family hike.

That is one very calm 12 year old. We have a significant bear population where I live (bears in our backyard is not an unusual occurrence) and the NYT is dead wrong when it says, “In fact, Alessandro did everything he was supposed to do.” No, he didn’t. He turned his back on the bear and, because the family seemed to have surprised the bear, they didn’t make noise while out hiking. Around here, you’ll see people walking through the forest with whistles or singing and talking loudly. You don’t want to startle a 600 lb wild animal with four inch long claws.

My solution is to just not go in the woods.