Nature can be a brutal place, and as you’ll see in this video below of a grizzly bear running down a mother moose and her calves, the hunt for a meal knows no bounds.
You see… when a wild animal is frantically running (you’ll see what I mean in just a second), it’s almost 100% certain that something is running after it. A fishing guide in Alaska was set up by the water when he saw a pair of moose calves and it’s mama bumbling through the wilderness and splashing into a sizable body of water.
What was behind them and quickly closing in, you might ask? That’d be a grizzly bear. It showed up a couple of seconds later, and it got so close to one of the little moose that the mother had to turn around and put her life on the line. Fortunately for the moose family, it seemed like their long legs gave them the upper hand when the chase spilled into the water.
On land? The advantage probably goes to the grizzly bear.
Surprisingly, moose can generally run at 35 miles per hour, and 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 at or above 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.
All that to say… in this race for survival (or in the bear’s case, a race for dinner), the moose were going to have to pull out all of the stops to get away from the grizzly. As I mentioned earlier, it seemed like taking the chase into the water briefly helped out the moose and her little ones.
That is until one of the calves got split up from its mama. As you’ll see in the video below, one stayed close to its mother and presumably got away safely. The other chose a different route up to dry land, and the grizzly decided to single it out and continue its pursuit.
Check it out:
If only that little moose would have stayed close to its mother.
Those that came across the video on social media were frightened for the moose (I always want to say “meese”) in the video, and made it clear that they were rooting for all of the moose family to get away:
“Thank God I was born human. Being an animal is terrifying.”
“What an epic video…holy…to witness that is very rare.”
“The way the mother turned around.”
“Poor baby! I know the bear needs to feed but still I hope the baby got away.”
“This is basically a horror movie for moose.”
It really is.
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.
