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Bear Charges Crowd at Mammoth Lakes Event in Viral Video

The videos were apparently first posted to TikTok, showing a brown-colored black bear rushing toward a Mammoth Motocross race track in California.

Published June 29, 2021

 (@dirtysquatch666/TikTok)
Image Via @dirtysquatch666/TikTok

On June 26, a black bear was captured on video charging at spectators at the Mammoth Motocross dirt bike race track.

The bear incident happened at Mammoth Lakes, California. Though it was brown in color, it is still considered a black bear.

The First Video

The videos were posted to TikTok by @dirtysquatch666. In the first video, the black bear can be seen charging at a group of spectators at the Mammoth Motocross event. However, we found no indication that it caused any injuries.

The video was accompanied by the "Oh No" music, which was quite popular in the past in TikTok videos.

After the video began to go viral, some commenters believed that the people seen in the video were just there to camp. In reality, they were part of a group of thousands of spectators at the dirt bike race event.

TikTok users also claimed in comments in a second video that the Mammoth Lakes crowd was "harassing" the bear. In reality, the spectators appeared to be standing back near the dirt bike race track.

Other commenters argued over whether Mammoth Lakes was considered a part of the Yosemite area, as mentioned in the video's caption. Mammoth Lakes is about a 30-minute drive from the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park.

Police Called

After the bear charged some of the spectators, the Mammoth Lakes Police Department confirmed for us that it had received a phone call at 12:53 p.m. local time.

By the time they arrived with orange-colored bean bag guns, also referred to as "less-lethal" weapons, the bear had run up a tree.

Police in Mammoth Lakes also confirmed for us that the bear eventually ran away on its own. Officers did not need to shoot the bean bag guns to resolve the situation.

Mammoth Motocross

This year's installment of Mammoth Motocross took place between June 18-27. It's described as "the summer's best spectator sport where the energy and adrenaline are contagious."

"With 7 days of thrilling competitions, this event cannot be missed. Riders have ventured to 6 qualifying locations around California during the Road to Mammoth race circuit and are more than ready to bring home a coveted Mammoth bear trophy."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN57kOPhrZA&t=29s

The incident with the bear in Mammoth Lakes charging the spectators occurred during a day for "all big bikes" at the event.

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.

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