A moose calf was caught on camera running for its life from a hungry grizzly bear in hot pursuit near Denali National Park.
Nature can be a brutal place, and as you’ll see in this video below, the hunt for a meal knows no bounds. A tour guide who goes by “Denali Dan” captured a young moose frantically doing its best to get away from an apex predator on its tail. The calf ran up and around the Denali Boardwalk, and those in the area could tell that something was up.
You see… when a wild animal is running like this (you’ll see what I mean in just a second), it’s almost 100% certain that something is running after it. The moose calf bumbled through the area and could be seen checking the area behind it around 10:26 a.m..
It was clearly in distress, and was doing its best to keep distance between itself and thing that was chasing it.
What was behind it and quickly closing in, you might ask? That’s be a grizzly bear. It showed up a couple of minutes later, and “Denali Dan” got it on video sniffing around the area and trying to pick up on the scent trail around 10:33 a.m., not even 10 minutes after the calf had come through.
Surprisingly, moose calves can run at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. That’s pretty fast, but not as fast as a grizzly. They are the fastest of the eight bear species, and have been known to top out at a speed of 35 miles per hour. There are even videos out there of grizzlies keeping up with cars that are going 40 miles per hour. They’ve got very sneaky speed, and a whole lot of stamina to go with it.
Though 35 miles per hour is typically their topping out speed, they can maintain 25 to 30 miles per hour for miles at a time. So if they are going after a meal, or chasing a foe (like what’s happening in this footage), they can maintain a certain pace and typically have some of the best stamina in the Animal Kingdom. They truly are apex predators.
Pair that with a grizzly’s nose being one of the best scent detectors in all of the world and the advantage goes to the bear in this chase down. The only hope for the calf was to stay way in front of the grizzly, and hopefully find some back up – like a mama moose – somewhere along the way.
Here’s how “Denali Dan” described the wild moment:
“This bear was not after people! He was on the hunt for a moose calf that was separated from its mother and had run up onto the boardwalk. It’s an immediate sign that a hungry bear is nearby when you see a stressed out lonely calf and you should immediately seek cover or leave the area.”
That’s both terrifying and mesmerizing to see.
Unfortunately, we don’t know how this chase ended up. For the sake of the calf, I’m hoping it eventually got reunited with its mother and it’s still out in the wild living a happy, healthy life. But if you were rooting for the grizzly… there’s a good chance the bear stayed on the scent trail and eventually brought down the prey it was after.
Choose whichever side and story that makes you happy.
