A family in the Canadian province of British Columbia had the camera rolling for what they called a “National Geographic moment” late last week.
While taking her kids to school last Friday morning, Christin DuBois and her children witnessed a black bear hunt down a deer and start eating it in the middle of the street.
The initial attack happened so quickly that footage of the bear taking down the deer was not captured on video, but subsequent footage of the bear dragging its kill across the quiet suburban street caused quite a stir on Facebook.
Black bears are opportunistic feeders that will eat pretty much anything they can get their paws on. However, they are primarily foragers and scavengers who dine mainly on berries, roots, insects, and road-kill.
While they will somewhat commonly hunt deer fawns, it is uncommon for them to hunt full-grown deer like the one in the video.
DuBois said that her daughter had been hoping to see a wild bear for some time now but that this incident exceeded her wildest imagination. She shared her story with Info News.
“Her brother saw a bunch this year. She was quite upset.
We were excited to finally see a bear in person – I said to my daughter, ‘I think you got a little bit more than you bargained for.
We just thought the deer and bear were running together … then boom, he has him on the ground.
A house was blocking it, so we didn’t see the full takedown, but when we turned the corner, the bear had deer on the ground, was biting it, and the deer was kicking its legs.
When we went by, the bear looked up and looked at us. It wasn’t really worried about us, just started eating the deer.”
Not wanting to be late for school, she and her kids continued on their way, and after dropping them off, she contacted a conservation officer to report the incident.
“When I came back the same way, the deer was no longer moving, and the bear was eating it. So I ran home, got my husband, and then we drove up – and we were in the safety of a vehicle then, so we watched for about 10 minutes.”
She remained in the area while the bear feasted on the deer and even warned a passerby with a stroller that she may want to turn around and steer clear to avoid potentially provoking the bear to defend its food. She continued to follow and film the bear as it dragged the deer carcass up an outdoor staircase and across several of her neighbor’s backyards.
She said the bear appeared to be making its way back towards the forest, and the animal still appeared to be skittish around people.
Coincidentally enough, it wasn’t her only encounter with a bear that day. Later that same evening, a smaller, lighter colored perused through her yard and snacked on some vegetation.
“It was the day of the bears.”
