You may have seen the harrowing footage of a group of women walking through Chipinque Ecological Park in San Pedro Garza García, Mexico in July in which they were approached by a black bear.

Their encounter went viral not only because it was so alarming but because of how they reacted to the encounter.

Whatever they were feeling inside, the women showed little external fear as they were filmed by some nearby hikers.

Just because the bear is on the small side does not mean it couldn’t do some major damage, so there’s no way to predict whether or not things are going to turn out well.

The animal sniffed and inspected one of the women while everyone stood still.

In fact, they looked kind of amused!

According to The Humane Society, it was wise of them not to run, of course. The bear would have likely given chase and, at that point, the claws come out.

You have two choices when a bear approaches, stand and do nothing and hope things turn out for the best, or:

“Stand and face the bear directly. Never run away from or approach him. Make yourself look as big as possible by spreading your arms or, better yet, a coat. Make as much noise as possible by yelling, banging pots and pans or using other noisemaking devices.”

Whether they were unafraid or just stunned, they simply stood still – even AFTER the bear swiped towards them, showing a bit of aggression!

We honestly don’t know what we would do in this situation, but it’s NOT what one of the women did.

A second recording shows the encounter from a different angle. You can see that the women are pretty nonchalant but at least the cameraman seems panicked, murmuring “no, no, no” but also doing nothing to intervene.

Then the bear stands up. Again, no one nearby seems concerned.

That’s when one hiker does the unthinkable.

She reaches for her phone and takes a selfie with the bear!

The bear even seems to lean in for it – but that’s mighty close to the face if you ask us!

Hopefully, it goes without saying that this is not worth the risk.

But perhaps bear selfies are more common than we think. According to Bored Panda, the government of Nuevo Leon has issued a statement on protecting oneself in the presence of bears and it includes a note about selfies:

“Stay calm, never come between a baby and its mother, don’t feed them, take shelter when watching them, avoid photographing and taking selfies with them.”

Millions of people have now watched the videos on Twitter and they have spread to other social media platforms and news stations as well.

The woman remains unidentified – and that’s probably for the best since that selfie is now a source of mocking and not bravado.

Park rangers planned to capture the daring bear since it seemed a bit overly friendly near humans, but an online petition now has over 135,000 requesting they leave it alone since it belongs in the park and the maskless hikers were on its turf (though they were on a trail, it should be noted).

Lucky for the women, the bear decided not to engage further and simply sauntered away while those recording laughed.

But we all know it could have easily ended in tragedy.

You can scroll down below to see both videos.

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SUSTO 👀en Chipinque en Mty NL. Cada vez es más frecuente ver osos en la zona de chipinque que entran a casas o se topan con humanos. Que TEMPLE de esta jovencita 😱 pic.twitter.com/ruyjXvWRZo

— lázaro Ríos (@lzaroRos5) July 18, 2020

SUSTO 👀en Chipinque en Mty NL. Cada vez es más frecuente ver osos en la zona de chipinque que entran a casas o se topan con humanos. Que TEMPLE de esta jovencita 😱 pic.twitter.com/ruyjXvWRZo

— lázaro Ríos (@lzaroRos5) July 18, 2020

Source: @IzaroRos5 via Twitter, Bored Panda, ABC 7 News