In Yellowstone, a tourist tries to pet a bison and is saved in the nick of time by an intervening park ranger. Up in Jasper National Park, an amateur photographer wants to get a closeup photo of an elk, and soon regrets it. Down in Great Smoky Mountains, a man tries to lure bear cubs away from their mother. Not a day goes by without a wildlife encounter of the far-too-close kind making headlines and wildlife expert and conservationist Peter Gros thinks he knows why.
“There are so many common mistakes that people make that I think have been enhanced by the use of cellphones. People want to get selfies and selfies mean they need to get up close and personal with the animals,” he says, speaking to us from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where he’s on a break from filming the new season of the long-running show Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.
