Bear Chases National Geographic Crew During Filming: Fact Check

Story:

Wild Bear Chases National Geographic Video Crew During Documentary Filming

Other Versions

1. National Geographic Crew Running from a Bear

2. Behind the scenes of National Geographic, Chased by a Bear

3. Wildlife photography gone wrong

4. Photographers running from a bear

Fact Check:

Picture messages popular online since many years purport to show a wild Bear Chases National Geographic crew during the filming of a documentary video. It also appears with other claims as in Wildlife photography gone wrong. No, the claims are not true – the photograph is not real and in fact a Photoshop creation.

Not Picture of Bear Chases National Geographic Crew

The image in question is doing rounds online with such claims in different languages and appears to show National Geographic crew running from a brown bear. One bear, two tripods and four men legging it for their lives went viral in past and many viewers believed it is real. It appeared in popular sites and also in several memes like saying the bear just wanted a selfie together. However, the picture was actually taken on a film location scout in Colorado and Photoshopped with a stock photograph of a bear.

Tim Sparks, the bearded redhead person in the photograph is a filmmaker in Colorado. Sparks and the other guys took the picture in 2011 while doing some location scouting in Salida, Colorado. For the sake of fun, they added the bear photograph and shared it on Facebook to create an impression they were running from a bear. Note, the bear is not looking at the guys running away and appears quite calm, walking. In images, you can see the original shot without any bear in it. You can also see mirror image of a bear stock photograph was added to it.

So, the people in the image are neither National Geographic crew nor there was any bear running after them. It’s just a funny photomontage coming from a group of four friends during location scouting in Colorado.

Hoax or Fact:

Hoax.