#Family of bears halt roller coaster at Tennessee amusement park

A visitor to a Gatlinburg, Tenn., theme park got an extra thrill this week when a family of bears lumbered across the track of a coaster just as he was approaching from up the hill.

The incident at the Anakeesta Mountaintop Park in Gatlinburg was uploaded on TikTok by the user @RickTock69, where the video has been watched over 10 million times.

In the video, a rider on the Rail Runner mountain coaster — the speed of which can be controlled by the rider himself — is seen slowing down to a crawl as a mama bear and her two cubs cross the tracks. Onlookers can be heard gasping as one said: “I would be freaking out.” The bears crossed the track in time and the man resumed his ride.

“Everybody’s laughing but that is a mama bear with cubs,” wrote another commenter. “That person is lucky to be alive.”

“Bear looking at that guy like sushi coming around the conveyor belt,” someone else joked.

A representative for Anakeesta said in a statement to Fox News that this particular season has been “particularly active” for the local bear population.

A person encounters a family of bears while riding a coaster at the Anakeesta Mountaintop Park in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

TikTok

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“The video that appeared on TikTok of Anakeesta Rail Runner mountain coaster illustrates the outdoor nature of our 72 acre family theme park,” Michele Canney, Anakeesta’s marketing director, told Fox News. “Our property is literally a stone’s throw away from the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park… It is not uncommon to see a family of bears in our park, or in Gatlinburg, the gateway city to the national park.”

The mama bear seen in the video, Canney added, is named “Ana,” and she’s been “on our property since the park opened three years ago.”