• The National Park Service says people shouldn’t push their friends over when running from a bear.
• The agency said people shouldn’t sacrifice their friends even if “the friendship has run its course.⁣⁣”
• The park’s warning comes as more bears are set to come out of hibernation between March and May.

Bears are coming out of hibernation and the National Park Service has a warning for everyone: Don’t sacrifice your friends to escape a bear.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the National Park Service told people to “never push a slower friend down” to escape from a bear, “even if you feel the friendship has run its course.⁣⁣” 

“If not friend, why friend shaped?” the National Park Service tweeted. “Seeing a bear in the wild is a special treat for any visitor to a national park. While it is an exciting moment, it is important to remember that bears in national parks are wild and can be dangerous.”

The thread sparked a slew of questions. 

“What if you’re the slower friend?” Twitter user Doug Jones wrote. 

“Check in on the friendship before you head to the woods,” the NPS replied. 

A Twitter user named Jeff Brown wanted to know what to do “if the bear looks really hungry.” 

“Don’t they deserve a lil snack as a treat?” Brown tweeted. 

“Do you consider yourself the faster or slower of the two friends?” the NPs tweeted in response. 

The agency also tweeted a link to its guide on what people should do if they spot a bear. This includes advice like “talking calmly” so the bear can identify you as a human, and not provoking the animal. 

“Do NOT run, but if the bear follows, stop and hold your ground. Bears can run as fast as a racehorse both uphill and down. Like dogs, they will chase fleeing animals,” the National Park Service wrote in its guide. 

There are more than 900,000 black bears in the US, per the National Park Service.

More than 30,000 brown bears also roam the US, according to Be Bear Aware, a nonprofit group. As for grizzly bears, there are around 1,500 of them on the US mainland and 31,000 grizzlies in Alaska, per The National Wildlife Federation.

Grizzly bears at Yellowstone National Park are expected to come out of hibernation between March and May.

However, bear attacks are rare. The parks service says the chances of being hurt by a grizzly bear are “approximately 1 in 2.7 million.” The parks service added that a visitor to Yellowstone National Park has a higher chance of death by drowning or fatal burns from a hot spring than being killed by a bear.