Light was fading on the evening of Aug. 21 at Coldwater Campground in the Lakes Basin near Mammoth, as embers burned in a metal fire pit and a lantern glowed on a picnic table. It seemed to be another perfect night in the great outdoors. But when a bear approached, searching for food, the campers at Site 9 abandoned their plates of freshly grilled steak and cups of wine. From a distance, they watched as the bear ate their dinner.

One person recorded the whole encounter on their cellphone. In the video, loud pounding sounds can be heard; the noises do nothing to deter the bear as it sniffs out the table. A bottle of wine spills.

“Oh no, not the wine!” says a person out of the camera’s frame.

The video follows the bear as it leaves the picnic tables and pads over to a food storage locker, passing behind a large stump. On top of that stump stands a 61-year-old woman who had been camping in the neighboring site.

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The woman later told police and wildlife officers she stepped onto the stump when she saw the bear approach because she wanted to appear larger and taller. Law enforcement officers protected her identity and have not released her name. In the video, the woman clutches what looks like a phone to her chest with one hand. Her other hand shakes.

With the bear right behind her, the woman glances up toward the camera, then looks over her shoulder toward the bear, pivoting ever so slightly. That subtle movement appears to draw the bear’s attention. It shifts its weight, approaches the stump and swipes its paw across the back of the woman’s legs.

The camera holds while the woman jumps off the stump. The bear backs down.

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“Oh, s—t!” the voice behind the camera says. The video cuts.

In the month since the video was uploaded to social media, it has been shared, reposted and memed so many times it’s impossible to count how many people around the world have seen it. The video is only a fragment of all that happened that night, a little more than 30 seconds long. It doesn’t show the moments before as the bear, perhaps, meandered through other campsites without causing trouble. No one on social media can know what happened next. Did the bear walk back into the woods? Did it continue to eat more food? All the video does show is that the bear chose not to pursue the woman when she jumped off the stump.

But the consequences of this 30-second cellphone video have been tragic and complex.

Later that night, Mammoth Lakes police received a call from the hospital notifying them of a patient that was being treated for injuries after being swiped by a black bear. The lacerations required sutures, but the patient was OK. Still, the injuries caused by the bear’s swipe triggered a series of events. Mammoth police notified the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Officers interviewed the patient and reviewed the cellphone footage. Ultimately, they determined that the bear was a threat to public safety.

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The next day, wildlife officers came to Coldwater Campground and shot tranquilizer darts at the male bear. It stumbled 200 yards before falling down, unconscious, said George Struble, assistant chief for California Department of Fish and Wildlife, at a public meeting with the Mammoth Lakes Town Council in early September. Officers matched the bear’s description based on its markings, size and coloration and euthanized it on site. DNA analysis later matched samples from the woman to the euthanized bear, confirming its identity.

The death of the bear was a tragedy that shook residents of Mammoth Lakes, who had come to know and love him. They’d given him a name, after the V-shaped collar of white fur on his chest: Victor.

The town of Mammoth Lakes sits beneath the steep escarpment of the Eastern Sierra. Public land surrounds the town on all sides. Trailheads from town lead into the Ansel Adams and John Muir wilderness areas.

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Coldwater Creek Campground in Mammoth Lake, Calif.

“Mammoth is 2 by 2 miles and six hours away from everything,” said Lawson Reif, the town’s outdoor recreation manager.

Despite its small size, Mammoth Lakes hosts waves upon waves of tourists year-round. Between July 2022 and June 2023, an estimated 1.7 million people visited Mammoth Lakes, according to a report from Mammoth Lakes Tourism. More than 300,000 of them came to Mammoth to go camping.

The Lakes Basin, just a few miles from town, is one of the area’s most popular launchpads for outdoor recreation, with ample........

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