Earlier this year we shared rare video out of Yellowstone National Park of a grizzly bear taking down a young but good-sized bison in broad daylight. On the other side of the summer season on the Yellowstone Plateau, another park visitor was recently able to catch equally dramatic footage of a grizzly killing a bull elk.
The incident took place on September 18 and was captured on camera by B.E. Judson, who quickly uploaded the video to YouTube. Her accompanying description explains the predation event took place a little past daybreak along the Yellowstone River where it meanders its way north out of the Hayden Valley, one of the premier wildlife-watching hotspots in the park.
The grizzly chases the elk down the riverbank and out into the flow. Just as the bear reaches him, the bull wheels around to confront his pursuer with a formidable rack of antlers. To no avail, however. The grizzly – a huge, almost black male (or boar) – efficiently sidesteps those spear-points and grabs the elk on the back, clawing and tearing in with his teeth.
The elk soon loses balance in deeper water and begins rolling and flailing in the river as the grizzly presses his attack. Eventually, the bull appears to drown and go motionless, upon which the bear continues his high-exertion labour by shoving and tugging the carcass ashore.
“The grizzly was successful in taking down the bull elk after only a few minutes, but it worked for around a half an hour to redirect it to the far side of the river and secure it on the east bank, about one-hundred yards downstream from the north end of the Hayden Valley,” Judson wrote.
Tough as it is to watch the elk’s demise, its meat is a welcome boon for the grizzly: bears are currently packing on as many pounds as possible – a period of around-the-clock fall foraging known as “hyperphagia” – to prepare for their extended winter sleep just around the corner.
As with the Yellowstone grizzly killing the bison back in May, it’s unusual to see an attack such as this play out – let alone in full view of a major park road. That said, this brand of predation certainly happens.
This time of year, elk are embroiled in the breeding season. It’s during the rut that mature bulls are variously trying to corral cows into harems, get their romance on, and meanwhile exert dominance over rival bulls through bugling, strutting, chasing, and occasional locked-antler clashes. This makes the bulls, for all their size, swagger, and weaponry, especially vulnerable to predators. For one thing, they’re quite distracted and hormone-crazed, not as wary as they are the rest of the year. For another, the rigours of the rut see their physical condition – prime at the start of breeding season – decline over its intense weeks, and occasionally manifest as outright bodily injury from fighting, all of which leaves them less capable of outrunning or defending themselves against large carnivores such as grey wolves – and grizzlies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzo2Ie7B7CI