ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Two bears were seen playing - and sliding down the slides - at a school in Asheville, North Carolina this week.
The video was posted to Facebook Tuesday by Betsie Stockslager Emry, a teacher at Isaac Dickson Elementary School located in Asheville, a city in the western North Carolina mountains.
In the video, a larger bear, presumed by the onlookers to be the mother bear, climbs up the playground before sliding down one of the larger slides.
The smaller bear then climbs up the playground. When the smaller bear appears uncertain atop the higher slide, the momma bear leads the cub to a smaller slide.
"You can do this one, honey. It's the smaller one," one of the on-lookers is heard saying in the voice of the mother bear.
The baby bear slides down the slide and reunites with her mother. The two playfully tumble at the base of the slide.
Emry told WCNC Charlotte the school sees bears often and the school has safety precautions in place to keep students and staff safe whenever bears appear on campus.
The black bear is the only bear species found in North Carolina or anywhere in the eastern United States, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Black bears were once restricted to remote areas and reached very low population levels in the mid-1900s. Today, black bears are found in approximately 60% of the total land area of North Carolina.