May 26 (UPI) — A pool party in Tennessee was interrupted when a group of bears decided to join in on the celebration and go for a swim.
Michelle Johnson posted a video to YouTube showing what happened when the Jefferson County High School Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or JROTC, attempted to have a party at the Chalet Village pool in Gatlinburg.
The video shows a group of bears swimming and wandering outside the pool after the students fled to a safe distance.
Johnson said there were a total seven bears in the group.
“Black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains are beautiful but please be respectful, keep your distance, and don’t feed them,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson said in a Facebook post that Chalet Village employees told her bears are frequently seen in the area, but the group that visited the pool was unusually large.
“The guys at Chalet Village said they had never seen so many at one time,” she wrote.