WATCH: Incredibly close encounter with brown bear in Alaska goes viral

WATCH ABOVE: Video posted by Drew Hamilton to Facebook

A video of an incredibly close encounter with a brown bear in Alaska has gone viral – almost two years after it was posted.

Thanks to some international media attention, the video, posted to Facebook by Drew Hamilton, has jumped in popularity with thousands of shares.

In the video, the bear can be seen walking very close to where Hamilton is filming. He then checks out the river, sits down for a moment and then gets up and walks away.

Neither the bear, nor Hamilton, make a sound until the end of the video when Hamilton can be heard saying ‘hey’, as if in warning to the bear.

This was filmed at the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary in Alaska. On their website they state “no one has ever been injured by a bear at McNeil River and since the permit program was initiated, no bears have been killed by visitors who felt threatened. To maintain this record, visitor activities at the sanctuary are closely managed and evaluated. However, it is always important to remember that the McNeil bears are wild animals with all the potential for aggressive behavior, so visitors are accompanied by armed department staff.”

A brown bear can grow to up to 1,500 lbs and while grizzly bears are a subspecies of brown bears, not all brown bears are grizzly bears.

Brown bears can be found in North America, Asia and Europe. In the interior portions of North America, brown bears are referred to as grizzly bears, which distinguishes them from the brown bears who live in the coastal areas of Alaska.

 – Source: Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle