When you see something running out in the wild… it’s almost always because there’s something chasing close behind.
If you’re to watch this video that was shared by the Help Alberta Wildies Society, you’ll recognize that these wild horses weren’t just out for an early morning jog. The non-profit organization located in Alberta, Canada advocates for protection of the area’s wild horses. Unfortunately, sometimes there’s only so much they can do when it comes to protecting groups of wild horses.
The Alberta area is home to a good amount of grizzly bears, and the horses that the Help Alberta Wildies Society track have often been caught on camera running from speedy grizzly bears in hot pursuit.
In case you didn’t know, grizzly bears – though they might look a little “chunky” – can run like the wind. They are the fastest of the eight bear species, and have been known to top out at a speed of 35 miles per hour. Believe it or not, that’s around the same speed that wild horses gallop along at, though their top speed typically pushes up north of 45 miles per hour. Horses however can run for much greater distances than bears, which is why wild horses aren’t a frequent meal for Canadian grizzlies. There really isn’t a ton of evidence to suggest that bears feed on horses but it could be possible, especially in the event that a wild horse was injured.
In previously captured trail camera footage, it’s clear that there’s not much of a difference in speed in the race for survival between horses and grizzlies (especially when you hone in on the speed of young foals). Like the many videos of this nature that have come before, hungry grizzly bears have no problem keeping up with wild horses.
That leads to this clip showing the wild horse band – being comprised of about five adults and one young foal – running through an open area of the wilderness in a single file line. After they all go out of frame, you just end up waiting to see whatever it is that might be chasing them… like a grizzly bear. After all, that’s how it goes in most of the other videos that Help Alberta Wildies Society posts.
This one was different. Those at the non-profit are sure that something was chasing these horses, but nothing ever comes up on the trail camera after the horses pass by. The caption for the video explains the situation in more depth:
“I’ve known these horses long enough to know when they are being pursued by an unwelcome visitor. In this case, the baby is up front and will live to see another day. We did not see what was coming up behind them. This is White Spirit’s camera station.”
Guess you could chalk it up as an unseen danger (that’s probably a grizzly).
The bad news is that something was definitely on the trail of these wild horses. The good news? The Help Alberta Wildies Society believes that this band of wild horses lived to see another day. They either outran the predator in pursuit, or they lost the animal chasing them long before they reached the trail camera, and were just making sure they kept running for good measure.
Regardless, they were showing signs of distress, and non-profit organization was happy to see that whatever was chasing them had evidently given up… hopefully.
