Outsider:

People quickly learned that brown bears don’t like social media photo-ops, during a release in Iraq yesterday.

Six Syrian brown bears were saved from captivity recently. After saving the bears, organizers of a wildlife conservation project in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq attempted to release the bears back into the wild. The group invited a cast of journalists, photographers, and spectators to watch the event. But the bears weren’t having it.

Just moments after the cages were opened, the bears charged the crowd. This was the third release planned by the organization. According to one of the event’s lead organizers, Blend Prevkani, reporters were also attacked by three bears during a release at the same location in 2018. So, either that location is cursed or organizers need to learn that large, chaotic crowds scare bears.