Nothing to see here… just a mother bear teaching her cub how to rip into the back of a parked truck.
Everyone is familiar with the age old saying of “Mother knows best,” right? Clearly this mama bear wouldn’t lead by example and instruct her cub how to rip through a truck bed tonneau cover to get to the contents underneath if she didn’t think it would be beneficial for them.
It’s a momma bear’s duty to raise her young until they are able to fend for themselves out in nature. That process usually takes around two years, and obviously looks different from sow to sow. One of the most important skills that’s taught to the young-ins is finding their own food.
Sometimes that means hunting… sometimes that means pillaging.
Bears tend to be pretty nosy creatures, and though they have been known to get violent when provoked (or if their cubs are messed with), they’re usually just curious more than anything. And sometimes that means getting into a little trouble, in most cases because they are searching for food. That’s normally the main cause for any bear interacting with humans, and likely what was happening in this video.
As you’ll see, the mother bear hopped up on the top of the truck bed, seemingly tracking some sort of smell from underneath. At first, the cub stayed down on ground. Eventually, it found its way up and joined in on the destruction. The tonneau cover was no match for a hungry mother bear and her little one.
It only took the wild animal a few seconds to crack open the truck bed. Though it’s unclear what it was after… like I said earlier, situations like this are almost always food-motivated. A bear isn’t going to be destructive for no reason. More often than not, they are destructive in the name of a full stomach.
And in this case, the search for food ended up being a learning lesson – albeit not an ideal one for us human. The cub now knows that parked cars are just as useful as a source for food than say… the river:
If you are going to be in bear country, you’ve got to make sure not to have anything packed in the car that a bear could get a sniff of. Bears have some of the best noses in the entire Animal Kingdom, and can track down a scent for miles. And after watching this video, it’s very apparent that bears have no problems at all busting open the back of a truck bed.
Here’s what social media users had to say about it in the comments:
“Opened up that thing like a can opener.”
“Bro’s truck has insurance, life will go on. My kids and I are never going to see a bear tearing off a tonneau cover – live – ever again.”
“What to do if Yogi and Boo-Boo bear are breaking into the bed of your truck?”
“Baby bear used the step side.”
“Bears are just much bigger and stronger raccoons.”
Never thought about it like that… when it comes to food, there’s certainly an argument there.
