By Tim Binnall
People swimming at beach in Florida were understandably amazed when they realized that they were sharing the water with a black bear that had decided to take a dip with them. The weird encounter reportedly occurred on Sunday in the community of Destin and was captured on video by multiple bewildered witnesses. According to witness Chris Barron, the creature was initially spotted "out pretty far" in the Gulf of Mexico and many onlookers first thought it could be a shark or perhaps a dog.
However, as the animal got closer to the sand, they realized that it was a small black bear that was rather nonplussed by all of the humans around it. Barron indicated that the feeling was seemingly mutual as, he observed, "most people were shocked instead of being scared. No one expected to see a bear in the Gulf of Mexico." The creature eventually made its way onto the shore, where it shook away the water from its fur, and scrambled off into some nearby sand dunes.