Samantha Dehring: Woman Jailed Over Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Encounter

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Samantha Dehring was arrested for getting too close to a bear at Yellowstone.

Samantha Dehring is an Illinois woman who received a jail sentence for getting too close to a grizzly bear at Yellowstone National Park. The encounter was recorded and the video was shared online.

Here’s what you need to know:

Dehring Continued to Take Photos After the Group Noticed a Mother Bear & Her 3 Cubs



Woman Arrested for Getting Too Close to Bear: CopsA terrifying close encounter as a grizzly bear lunges at a tourist in Yellowstone National Park. She scurried away, but didn’t escape the law. Samantha Dehring from Illinois is accused of getting too close to the mother grizzly bear and her cubs. Visitors must stay 400 feet away from the wild bears in the national…2021-07-31T11:08:42Z
Dehring of Carol Stream, Illinois, visited Yellowstone National Park on May 10, 2021. She and the rest of her group spotted a mother grizzly bear with three cubs while exploring Roaring Mountain, the Justice Department said.

According to park officials, the rest of the group slowly moved away from the bears and got into their vehicles. Dehring chose to remain standing near the bears to take pictures.

The mother bear charged at Dehring but luckily did not attack her, as the video of the encounter shows. Dehring then put her phone in her pocket and moved away.

Dehring Pleaded Guilty & Is Banned From Yellowstone for a Year
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Park rangers started investigating the incident in late May and asked the public for help identifying the woman in the video. According to the National Park Service, investigators charged Dehring on August 2.

She initially faced two counts:

Willfully remaining, approaching, and photographing wildlife within 100 yards
Feeding, touching, teasing, frightening, or intentionally disturbing wildlife
Dehring appeared in court in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, on October 6. She pleaded guilty to the first count. The second charge was dismissed, according to a news release from the Justice Department.

Magistrate Judge Mark L. Carman sentenced Dehring to four days behind bars and one year of unsupervised probation. She was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and an additional $1,000 to the Yellowstone Forever Wildlife Protection Fund. Dehring was also banned from visiting Yellowstone National Park for one year.

According to federal court documents obtained by Heavy, Dehring will be required to serve her four-day sentence from October 15, 2021, to October 19, 2021, at the Gallatin County Detention Center in Montana. Dehring and her attorney have not commented about the sentence.

Prosecutors Say Dehring Was Lucky She Wasn’t Mauled
grizzly bear
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File photo of a grizzly bear at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Acting United States Attorney Bob Murray said in a prepared statement that Dehring was lucky to be alive after failing to move away from the bears. “Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are, indeed, wild. The park is not a zoo where animals can be viewed within the safety of a fenced enclosure. They roam freely in their natural habitat and when threatened will react accordingly,” Murray said. “Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish. Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist.”

The National Park Service has a section of its website devoted to bear safety. Park rangers warn that all of Yellowstone is a bear habitat. They instruct visitors to stay at least 100 yards away from bears and to never approach them to take photos. People are warned never to feed the bears. Rangers also say that if a bear approaches your vehicle, the best thing to do is to honk the horn and drive away.

Grizzly bears are especially dangerous if they feel their cubs could be in danger. The North American Bear Center says 70% of grizzly bear killings involve a mother defending her cubs.

The AP reports grizzly bears have killed 8 people at Yellowstone in the past decade.


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4 days in jail?! Banned from Yellowstone for a year?! That's it?!?! They should have added some community service, and banned her from Yellowstone AND every zoo or animal exhibit in the country too.

I hear people talk about "dumb animals". PULEEEEEEEEEEZ the dumbest animal on this planet are humans. I saw that constantly when doing volunteer work at Operation Wild Life rehabbing injured/orphaned wildlife, and doing education programs. We'd always take all the birds of prey as part of an education exhibit, and you wouldn't believe how many morons would come up to me afterwards and ask something stupid like: "Can we pet the eagles?" I damn near had to bite my tongue off to keep from saying something like: Sure, go ahead... As long as you don't mind your hand and arm coming back all shredded and mangled

We'd just get done telling them these are WILD animals, NOT pets. Hence, one of the reasons we wear kevlar gloves when we handle them. OH! I really love the ones who try to tell us stories like a cousin's baby, or friend of a friend's toddler was snatched up by an eagle. Yeah riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. And we'd explain that was physically IMPOSSIBLE. That most eagles weigh between 15 and 17 pounds. So...let's say it weighs 16 pounds....an eagle can only lift off and fly with something HALF it's weight and fly. Any more than that, and they can't get off the ground. BUT......they'd still insist it happened. People are IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!

This dumb ass would have gotten exactly what she deserved if she'd gotten mauled. Anybody with a teaspoon of brains should know you NEVER NEVER NEVER mess with an animal's babies-----DUH! I have ZERO sympathy for these morons.

It's a good thing she didn't sit on the bear.

Those poor little pugs

Which one is the bear?