Nature at its finest.
And while life in the wild is much harder for a deer or an elk, it can even be a mean and violent place when you’re a bear dealing with your own kind.
Brown bears are one tough animal, arguably one of the most notorious and feared killers in North America.
They grow huge with males averaging around 600 pounds and females 350 pounds. That’s big, and it’s just the average… the largest recorded brown is over 1,500 pounds.
No matter what way you swing it, that’s a massive animal that is incredibly powerful and dangerous. They have a bite force up to 1160 psi, which in comparison to a human at about 150 psi, is shockingly powerful.
Everything that gets in their way they are prepared to take on, and they’ll eat just about anything from a moose to rabbit.
Like most bears their whole live revolves around getting as much food as they can while using as few calories.
So, when food sources are running low they will occasionally eat another bear’s cubs. Boars (male bears) will also do this to get the chance to breed the female (sow) again that year. Why? Because females won’t mate when their cubs are still around so the easiest way to get her back in the sack? Kill the cubs. Yeah, told ya it was brutal…
Here, a mother and her three cubs are seen fishing for some salmon, an Alaskan brown bear favorite.
This male comes sniffing around, and got too close to the sow with her three cubs. The mother’s protection instincts immediately show as she rushes to defend them. And remember, a sow is generally going to be a fair bit smaller than a male boar.
This particular mother is noticeably smaller, but has twice the heart as she takes him on.
She fights hard and is able to get the large make to stay away from her and the kids.
What an encounter to witness and catch all on video.
This is why we go outside, so we can see something wild like this someday.
