Bear follows 12-year-old boy on hiking path

May 27 (UPI) -- A family out for a hike in northern Italy captured video of the moment a brown bear followed a 12-year-old boy down a mountain path.

The video, recorded on a hiking trail in Trentino, shows a boy named Alessandro walking slowly toward his family while the Marsican brown bear follows.

Loris Calliari, the boy's stepfather, was behind the camera at the time. He said Alessandro, an avid animal lover, wanted a photo with the bear.

"I noticed that he was moving and I told [Alessandro] to walk slowly, to be careful, that I will take a picture but to move," Calliari told CNN. "I was nervous at first but then saw that the bear was not scared, was not acting, so I calmed down."

He said the boy's mother and grandmother were less calm and screamed as the bear approached.

Calliari said Alessandro kept his cool during the encounter and had recently watched a YouTube video that stressed the importance of staying calm with bears around.