Gnarly Video Shows Aftermath of Grizzly Bear vs. Black Bear Encounter

Grizzly bears aren't exactly the friendliest creatures in the forest. So when anyone gets in one's path—whether it be another animal or a human—it usually doesn't end well for them.

One woman living in the Canadian Rocky Mountains got a close-up look at what happens when a grizzly bear gets a hold of another bear. "This is definitely one of the craziest things we have seen on a drive home," Susan Griffith wrote in a Facebook post documenting the encounter.

In the clip, a hungry grizzly bear is seen mauling the dead body of a black bear on the side of the road. The grizzly bites the black bear's head, back, and throat and tries to pull the carcass up the hill. The area is home to both black bears and grizzly bears, so it isn't entirely uncommon for the two animals to cross paths. But to have it captured in such detail on video is certainly a rare sight.

Grizzly bears aren't just apex predators. They're also avid scavengers and will chow down on whatever they find, including other bears. In areas where grizzlies coexist with black bears, they're known to kill and eat black bears without a second thought. Since the viewer only caught the aftermath of the encounter, it's unclear if the black bear was already dead before the grizzly found it.

It's the latest instance of people in the region finding a similar scene. In August 2022, hikers in Banff National Park encountered a grizzly bear eating the carcass of a black bear. And back in 2018, a male grizzly bear was caught on video attacking a mother black bear and her cubs in Alberta, killing one of the cubs while the others ran off.

Sometimes the circle of life isn't always beautiful.