A black bear disrupted a Mexican family’s birthday picnic, jumped onto a picnic table, and ate their lunch as the family maintained their composure and maintained their calm. Silvia Macas is seen cradling her son in a widely circulated social media video as the bear feeds itself to his tacos and enchiladas on his 15th birthday.
To celebrate the birthday of her Down syndrome-affected son Santiago, Macas traveled from their home in Mexico City to Chipinque Park, on the outskirts of the northern city of Monterrey.
The black bear appeared not long after they had settled in for their picnic, leaped onto the table in front of them, and started gorging on French fries, enchiladas, tacos, and salsa. In a video taken by Macas’ friend Angela Chapa, the mother is seen holding Santiago and covering his eyes with her palm while sitting stoically just inches from the bear’s mouth.
She claimed that she made an effort to dissuade the bear from seeing anything as a challenge by keeping both her son’s and her own cast down.
“The worst thing was that Santiago might get scared,” Macías recalled Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. “Santiago is very afraid of animals, a cat or a dog, any animal scares him a lot.”
“That’s why I covered his eyes, because I didn’t want him to see it and scream or run. I was afraid that if he got scared or screamed or scared the bear, that the bear would react,” she said of the incident Monday.
You can also explore the latest news updates we’ve shared below:
- Waukegan Mourns Loss of Motorcyclist In Green Bay Road Crash!
- Officer Involved Shooting Claims Life on 33rd Street In Lubbock!
Although bear encounters are not unheard of in the park, Macas said that she and Chapa had previously discussed the possibilities and had devised a plan. Bears often emerge at dawn or twilight rather than in the middle of the day.
“We are going to play a game where we cover Santiago’s eyes and we are going to act like statues,” she recalled rehearsing the plan. And that’s exactly what they did: Santiago remained motionless, even though “the bear was very close to us, we heard him as he growled, as he ate, you could smell the bear. It was really very very close.”
After their friend Angela tossed an enchilada away from the family to scare the bear away, Macas and her kid were able to slowly leave. According to the source, the black bear is an indigenous species in North America with a population of about 600,000.
A black bear sighting at Disney World in Florida last week led to the temporary closure of some areas of the theme park. The adult female was seized, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and moved safely.