It’s becoming un-bear-able.
Jackson, Wyoming, a popular gateway for visits to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, is testing an innovative new method to combat the ongoing problem of clueless, clout-chasing tourists approaching dangerous wildlife in hopes of creating winning social media content.
The Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board have released a tool they’re referring to as “selfie control,” a new Instagram filter visitors can download to show themselves posing virtually with IRL fierce creatures like bison, moose, and bears — oh my.
“Grizzles run at 35 mph. Humans? 8. You do the math,” the organization public service announcement stated.
The filter itself shows a cyber silhouette of animals in the distance, warning: “If the animal is bigger than the icon, you’re too close!”
Bears, other large beasts and “large nesting birds” should be kept just under a football field’s length away at 100 yards, according to the agency, while elk, moose, and bison should get 25 yards.
These simple, timeless safeguards are increasingly being ignored by those crowding into the western Wyoming hotspot — the naturally-blessed region is beloved by celebs ranging from Harrison Ford to Kanye West.
“Many [tourists] are coming without the information of knowing and understanding that these are wild animals, that this is not a zoo, and that these animals need space,” the board’s executive director Crista Valentino told ABC News.
Valentino added that there has been a “really big increase” in obnoxious and dangerous close animal encounters — including families putting their kids on the backs of the deadly beasts for photo ops.
“If you get between a mom and a baby moose, that mom will very quickly close that gap and defend its young,” she warned.
Last June, an 83-year-old woman was viciously gored by a bison and flung a foot in the air during a visit to Yellowstone.
The National Park Service commented that the animal was “defending its space.”
“We’ve all seen the videos on social media: someone gets too close to a bison for a selfie and the next thing you know, they are on the news with wild-animal-induced injuries,” the Jackson PSA plea stated.
Valentino added that in addition to the risks faced by humans, these careless actions also endanger the lives of the animals, who could wind up injured and rejected by their herd — and ultimately put down — after a provoked attack.
“We’re hoping to really see those negative interactions decline,” she said.
The misbehavior in nature isn’t exclusive to national parks, either. A woman recently had her hand mauled by a tiger at a New Jersey Zoo after slipping into its enclosure — similar to the infamous “Lion Queen” who jumped into the king of the jungle’s Bronx Zoo habitat in 2019.