"Ever feel the urge to get close to a bear so you can snap a quick photo when you're in a national park or forest? It could be the last thing you ever do, federal officials are warning visitors in one California forest area.

Noting a recent (and growing) trend on social media called #BearSelfies, officials at the U.S. Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit posted a warning on their website last week that visitors there were behaving in unsafe ways around bears.

"Bears are unpredictable, wild animals and may attack if threatened," Forest Supervisor Nancy Gibson said in a news release. 'We can’t have visitors creating dangerous situations for themselves and others. People are risking serious injury or death if they get too close to a bear.'"

The Weather Channel had the story October 30, 2014. [2]