The Canadian wilderness is full of predators.
Polar bears, grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, mountain lions, wolverines, and coyotes all inhabit our neighbor to the north, and while they do their best to avoid each other, it’s inevitable that at some point they’ll cross paths.
BBC was filming Natural World, a 2012 documentary series, and one episode centered around a wolf named Storm who lead one of the few wild packs that still hunt buffalo.
Pretty badass stuff, and while there’s a ton of amazing footage throughout, one scene really jumped out to me as being an almost unbelievable thing to witness.
The clip starts by showing the wolf pack rejoicing when Storm returns, his offspring wrestling and jumping on him. For a second you get the feeling we’re about to just see grey wolves frolicking when a monster black bear starts making his way toward the den.
Black bears will rarely if ever attack full-grown wolves head on, but they will try to snag a helpless pup if given the chance.
The bear makes his way towards the tree line, where the pups are bedded down. At once, Storm jumps into action, his whole family following. Storm runs behind him and nips him on the rear, forcing him to turn around. This happens repeatedly, with other wolves doing their part to block and force him to run off.
My hands are still sweaty from this one.
I know bears have to eat too, but wolves are just so cool I can’t help but root for them.
You can watch the entire episode here.
