Men charged with getting too close to bears in Alaska park

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — U.S. prosecutors have charged three men with leaving a special viewing platform and getting too close to bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. The U.S. attorney’s office filed charges this week in the August 2018 incident. A spokesperson says the office doesn’t discuss the timing of cases. The remote park on the northern Alaska Peninsula protects some of the highest densities of bears in the world and requires visitors to abide by special rules. The charges allege the men entered a closed area of the park by leaving an authorized viewing area and wading into a river when bears were feeding on salmon in nearby falls.