The intense footage captures an enormous grizzly bear fighting a bull elk to his last in one of the most incredible encounters to be captured in Yellowstone National Park.
Upfront: This footage is not for the faint of heart.
Just this past Friday, an outdoorsman captured the shocking encounter. While elk are known prey of grizzly bears, seeing one entangle a bull of this size is truly rare. Such a battle is a harsh reminder of the brutality of nature – and the relationship between predator and prey.
According to the outdoorsman who captured the footage, the grizzly employed hunting techniques to down the elk:
“At first light this morning I pulled over noting a Bull Elk with a few cows in the upper right of the meadow depicted in the opening photograph. I was startled moments later by a Bull Elk running into the Yellowstone River pursued by a large Grizzly Bear. The Grizzly was successful in taking down the Bull Elk after only a few minutes, but it worked for around a half an hour to redirect it to the far side of the river and secure it on the east bank, about one- hundred yards downstream from the north end of Hayden Valley.”
BE Judson
See Grizzly Bear fight Bull Elk to his last
Male grizzly bears typically reach 7 feet in height – but some have been known to surpass 10, even 12 feet. A subspecies of grizzly, the Kodiak bear, reaches these heights more often. Kodiaks rival the world’s largest bear for size: the polar bear.
Judging by the size of the grizzly bear next to the bull elk, this particular grizzly is probably around 6-7 feet himself. Elk, too, reach incredible size, and as such – this bull is even larger than the grizzly hunting him. A large bull can be well over 8 feet long. Making them even more impressive is their 4-ft rack of antlers. Combined with their already impressive body height, this can have an elk standing 10 feet tall. As such – this elk outmatches the bear in size, but not in tenacity:
If anything, this footage serves as a stark reminder as to why both grizzlies and elk deserve a wide breadth and should never be approached in the wild.
[H/T WhiskeyRiff ]
