A black bear swam out of the ocean and onto a Florida beach in Destin Sunday, shocking people on land.
“It’s a bear!” one youngster astutely noted in a video that spread across the internet.
While folks on the beach in Destin could bear-ly believe it, black bear sightings have increased throughout the Florida panhandle, as human development encroaches on their natural habitat.
However, sightings in the ocean remain uncommon. The bear that stunned people in Destin appeared to be a young black bear, and it may have been lost.
Frank Merrell, a boat captain who led a dive trip on Sunday, shared video of the bear attempting to swim back to land while it was farther from the coast.
“My first thought was maybe a dog, but was in complete shock when I realized it was a bear,” Merrell told Orlando Fox affiliate WOFL.
When the bear reached land, it drew quite a crowd.
“I guess he’s on vacation too,” one person cracked in a viral video.
The bear did not kill or injure anyone during its foray into the ocean. When it reached land, it appeared to be scared by the crowd and quickly ran away past sand dunes at the edge of the beach, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Bears can be spotted throughout Florida, even occasionally in wetland areas, but are rarely seen in the ocean. There are more than 4,000 black bears in the state, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.