A grizzly bear ambled right up to a spike camp for wildland firefighters in western Montana late Thursday. Nobody was mauled; humans and the bear all stayed calm.

People were “just standing there watching him” as the bear apparently foraged leaves from some brush, Josh Heusher told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.

He took video of the bear, which he said was about 50 yards away.

Dinner Time

Bear experts say grizzlies have a keen sense of smell, many times better than that of dogs, so they can pick up tantalizing scents from miles away. It could be that scents emanating from the firefighters’ camp drew the grizzly in.

The bear didn’t seem to be distracted by the presence of a crowd of humans, said Heusher, an equipment contractor assisting with the Windy Rock Fire southwest of Avon, Monta

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