Grizzly bears, brown bears, Kodiak bears, whatever you want to call them, they’re all the same in at least one regard.
They’re absolutely terrifying.
Feasting on over 30 pounds of food per day, these enormous beasts will take in anything from berries to vulnerable cubs, and when another bear gets in their way, they’re certainly not afraid to square up and protect what’s theirs or go get what they want to be theirs.
Grizzly Man is a Werner Herzog documentary from 2005, which used footage from numerous sources, but focused around what was captured by Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard over the final 5 years they spent studying bears in person.
Tragically, they were killed by a grizzly bear while in Katmai National Park in Alaska in 2003. Audio of their fatal attack was captured by one of their cameras, but was never released.
The horror of that aside, the couple did capture some absolutely amazing imagery, including an epic battle between two Alaskan brown bears which proves it’s not always the bigger one that wins.
It appears the smaller of the bears was just chilling out and laying on the ground when the larger approached and immediately escalated the situation, maybe believing his size alone would scare him off.
But the small bear stands his grounds, digs in, and holds his own.
It’s truly a great display of grappling, both bears digging for underhooks and the larger even able to use a wizard to bring the smaller to the ground. Even while in the bad situation of being on his back, the smaller remains calm and is able to get back up on his feet and eventually thwart the attack.
Of course, I’d be remiss to not point out the insanely large dump the aggressor let fly in the middle of the battle. When it’s fight or flight time, you’ve got to get rid of anything not helping you, but man that had to make for some messy fur later in the day.
Yet another amazing display of nature at it’s most powerful and somewhat hilarious.
There’s something so calming and at the same time terrifying realizing our true place on the food chain if not for all the tools and technology brilliant people have created for us over the year. We truly do stand on the shoulders of giants.
RIP Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard.
