Caught on video: Boy keeps his calm as a brown bear follows him during family hike

• A family outing turned into a nerve-wracking experience when a brown bear followed their 12-year-old boy down a mountain path.
• In the video, the boy can be seen slowly walking towards his stepfather while a brown bear followed closely behind.
• The boy, who was an animal lover, was not afraid throughout the encounter and even asked his stepfather to take a picture.

An Italian family had a nerve-wracking experience when a brown bear crept behind their 12-year-old boy during their mountain hike in Trentino, northern Italy.

Footage of the hair-raising encounter showed Alessandro slowly walking towards his stepfather, Loris Calliari, as a brown bear followed closely behind.

In the video, Calliari can be heard coaching the boy to slowly move towards him.

Calliari was the one who managed to capture the close encounter on video.

Calliari told CNN that six of the family members set off on Sunday morning for a day out in the mountains near their home in the valley.

The family believes that the bear had been sleeping near the bushes when Alessandro came by to pick up some pine cones.

The bear was identified to be a Marsican brown bear.

Alessandro was an animal lover, Calliari told CNN, and he was particularly fond of bears. So when he saw the bear behind him, he was not afraid and even asked his stepfather to take a picture.

Calliari recalled, “I noticed that he was moving and I told him (Alessandro) to walk slowly, to be careful, that I will take a picture but to move.”

Calliari admitted that he was initially nervous, but when he “saw that the bear was not scared, was not acting,” he started to calm down.

Naturally, not everyone could keep calm. Alessandro’s mother and grandmother had started screaming when they spotted the bear.

Alessandro, meanwhile, remained relaxed — obviously thrilled by the encounter. At one point his voice can even be heard saying, “This is so cool.”

Calliari explained that they had been somewhat prepared for such an encounter after watching a YouTube video on the topic about a month ago.

The brown bear eventually lost interest and turned away. Alessandro, meanwhile, was only interested in one thing — if his stepfather had taken the picture.

Once things settled down, the family realized what an incredible encounter it is they went through and captured on film, which Calliari shared on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Source: CNN