Boy, 12, Remains Totally Calm Despite The Massive Bear Creeping Up Behind Him

Young Alessandro Breda kept his cool throughout the nerve-racking encounter.
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A 12-year-old boy in Italy had a close encounter with a rather large bear while on a picnic with his family.

But instead of panicking, footage of the moment shows young Alessandro Breda keeping his composure so he doesn’t spook the bear, then calmly walking away.

The boy told local media that he had recently watched a video about bears and knew what to do. And more importantly, he knew what not to do as the bear approached in Trentino, in northern Italy.

“I’d learned that if you yell, the bear becomes agitated and becomes much more aggressive,” Alessandro told RAI, according to a New York Times translation.

Loris Calliari, the boy’s stepfather, told CNN they believe the bear had been sleeping, and Alessandro accidentally disturbed it while gathering pine cones nearby.

“I noticed that he was moving and I told him to walk slowly, to be careful, that I will take a picture but to move,” Calliari told the network. “I was nervous at first but then saw that the bear was not scared, was not acting, so I calmed down.”

The Times said there are between 82 and 93 bears in the region. Although conflicts with humans are rare, there have been three mauling incidents since 2014.

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