On September 24, 2026, former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman performed piano for over 150 rescued moon bears at the Animals Asia sanctuary in Vietnam. In contrast, a North Carolina man used metal guitar riffs and pinch harmonics to scare off Black Bears earlier this year. In a video posted to Instagram on April 22, 2026, Andy M. Phail used his guitar and a half-stack guitar amp on his porch in North Carolina. For those unfamiliar with the term, a half-stack includes a speaker cabinet and a separate amplifier head mounted on top. Together, they produce a heavy guitar sound, loud enough for genres like heavy metal.

In the video caption, Phail explained, “Dude, since these dudes broke into my Jeep and ate 5 chocolate cakes, they will not leave my complex alone. Halfstack vs da bears, (I think they call her stumps cause she has 3 legs).” Playing metal riffs on his porch worked, driving the bears back into the woods behind the dumpster.

Viewers took to the comments to point out a hilarious minor detail. It soon became the focal point of the video. The guitarist appears to have an ankle monitor attached to his right ankle. Viewers joked, with comments such as “The ankle monitor makes this go harder” and “The ankle monitor is there for the bear’s protection.” Another commenter hilariously referred to the ankle monitor as the “Irish Rolex”. Given this minor detail, it now makes sense why the guitarist is safely positioned on the porch, aside from the obvious threat of a bear. It adds to the overall success of the guitar playing, driving the bears away from a safe distance.

Other Instances Where Instruments Have Been Used To Scare Away Bears

This isn’t the only time music has been used to drive away bears. In 2024, a trumpet player used this technique at Lake Tahoe in California when a bear got too close for comfort. Mateo Mavero Duran, trumpet player for The Outlaw Mariachi Band, whaled on the trumpet, defending their campsite. Much like the video from earlier this year, this successfully scared the bear away. With these three examples, we can easily determine that bears don’t like heavy metal or mariachi. However, they do respond and take interest in classic piano playing.

Photo by George Rose/Getty Images

The post North Carolina Man Uses Heavy Metal Guitar Riffs to Scare Off Family of Bears in Hilarious Video appeared first on VICE.

It’s time to vote in one of the most consequential elections of the year, one only slightly less important than the November midterms. Of course I’m talking about Fat Bear Week, the annual event in which people elect — well, yes, the fattest bear. The candidates are bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, who are currently busy devouring as many calories as possible to fatten up for winter hibernation. Voting officially opened Sept. 22, continuing a tradition started in 2014 to select which bears are the best and most fat using a March Madness-style bracket. You can learn more and vote here, plus read some delightful bios on the bears in the running or peruse its hall of champions.

Something like a million people vote in this event every year, according to the daytime news segment that I caught at the dentist the other afternoon while getting a tooth cleaning. Do I need to fact-check that? Sometimes information just comes at you when you have your mouth wide open and people are prodding their fingers around inside. (It remains a mystery, however, why my dentist has a TV on in every room.)

My point is, everyone is talking about Fat Bear Week, and I encourage it. Growing up, I was one of those reflexively contrarian teenagers who hated anything popular and found value in almost anything obscure, independent or weird. These days I’m much less anti-mainstream, especially when it’s something that brings us closer to our true human nature, which is reflected to some degree in the seasonal behaviors of other species. I, too, will fatten up this winter, whether I want to or not. 

I wish Fat Bear Week could be every week. Some people are trying. There’s now a Fat Marmot Week, a similar event inaugurated this year. But I must add that a family of marmots devastated my garden in April and destroyed my precious stargazer lilies (I am not joking about this; it was brutal and saddening), so I’m having a hard time jumping on that bandwagon. But I’ll try! Go fat marmots, go! Plump yourself on the spoils of would-be gardeners. I was a big fan when succulents became a dumb little trend, because at least that was boosting an interest in plants rather than mass-produced ugly dolls from China or something. I can’t stand all this plastic trash we elevate above the natural world. Maybe I have retained my anti-establishment roots after all. 

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This would be the point in the essay where I introduce some sad facts about falling grizzly population levels or remind everyone that climate change is going to make it harder for bears to exist or something. I definitely need to fact-check that, but I don’t want to. Even coming across news this week that a mining project is being fast-tracked at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, which neighbors Katmai National Park and could impact bear populations, is not what I need to hear right now. Sometimes we all need some joy in life, such as contemplating the fattest bears without all the other gloomy stuff in the world. I do find plenty of things to be grateful for and optimistic about, even if it doesn’t always come through in my published writing. While I don’t want to ignore all the very important chaos — facts that barely register on the news cycle, like how we keep breaching the planetary boundaries necessary for the flourishing of life — I try not to wallow in it either. That’s what Fat Bear Week means to me, and I think we could all use more stuff like it. Ping me when there’s a Sleekest Dolphin Week, Plumpest Mushroom Monday or the Most Insane Octopus of the Month. Give me the “American Idol” version of meadowlark songs.

I am always humbled and delighted whenever the internet explodes over some recently indexed cat species or a shiny new NASA artifact, like the first images of a black hole or the recent trip around the moon, maybe because the collective awe inspired by stuff like that reminds me that people do feel connected to something larger and more mysterious, whether it’s little red dots in the early universe or bears munching on berries in Alaska. From there, maybe people will take more responsibility for the home we share. There’s not much I can do about grizzly bear populations — which are indeed at greater risk under the Trump administration — but I can show my solidarity; I can vote, not just in fun online elections but in the real, super serious one coming up. And I can dream of — no, demand — a better world for all species. Oh, and by the way, I’m rooting for unnamed bear 909. Read her bio. She’s been through a lot of grief, and I admire her resilience. 

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