EDMONTON -- A Sherwood Park man had an up-close and personal encounter with a family of grizzly bears on the weekend, and he caught it on camera.
Justin Giesbrecht was deer hunting with his father outside Edson on Saturday when it happened.
“We parked and decided to go in for a hike and see what we could find, but the moment I got out, I could see the mother bear came. So we were like, ‘Uhhh, let's hold on a minute here,’ and then three cubs popped out, and we were like, ‘Well, we’ll stay in the truck and see what happens.’”
When the four bears approached the truck, Giesbrecht pulled out his camera to catch the rare sight.
“I’ve seen a lot of grizzlies, but not with three healthy cubs like that.”
In the video, as the mother bear approaches the truck, she stands up on her hind legs to look through the front windshield.
“All of a sudden she goes to the front, disappears. I thought she was just going to walk by, and then all of a sudden, whoa! She just caught me off guard. It was amazing to see," Giesbrecht recalled.
“My truck was parked kind of on an angle, so she was pretty tall; I’m assuming about seven-and-a-half half feet. Got my heart rate going.”
When he got home, Giesbrecht and his family shared the video on social media, where it has been watched hundreds of times.
“I got my daughter to put it on social media and it kinda blew up from there. My wife put it on Facebook and it just went all over the place.”
He says he’s seen more wildlife this year than he ever has before.
“This year has been kind of weird. I don’t know if it’s the weather, or whatnot, but there’s been a lot more wolves, a lot more bears I’ve seen, I just don’t know what to say about that.”
“It’s amazing to see.”
