Video emerged this week showing a "fearless mama bear" defending her cubs from a hungry male grizzly bear. Brad Josephs, a wildlife guide, explained that captured the moment on tape during a recent expedition through Katmai, Alaska.
In the video, a massive boar stands atop a promontory and attacks a sow with her cubs standing behind her. As the adult grizzly bears bite at each other, one of the younglings gets knocked off the cliff while the other runs in the opposite direction.
"Oh, there goes the cubs. The cubs just fell. The cubs are falling," said a voice behind the camera as the two adult bears — the female with its jaws still clamped onto the male — began to slide. The two climb up a few steps and begin to recover their breath.
As someone expresses concern for the cubs, Josephs says: "Guys, the cubs are going to disappear and mom's gonna find them." After the bears rest for about a minute, Joesphs explains that the boar doesn't want to hurt the sow, but rather, "he just wants to kill the cubs for food."
A little more than two minutes in, the boar walks away as the sow makes her way to higher ground. At one moment, the boar dashes toward something as the female watches. Joseph says, "I think he got one." But someone else responds, "No, they're down quite a ways."
While the boar searches, the sow charges and the boar backs off. The grizzly bears continue to look around until the boar disappears. About a minute later, the cub that fell is seen climbing the side of the cliff. "Remember, these cubs are super durable," said Josephs. "Like that fall isn't going to bother them."
Then, the video ends with the mother watching her cub.
Grizzly Bear infanticide and a happy ending
In a follow-up video, Josephs, who last year shared the "most awesome bear fight ever recorded," explained that the mama grizzly bear and her cubs got away safely. Later, he found the male grizzly mulling about in the area.
Josephs also addressed comments he received about the practice of infanticide" among bears. He said it's a common topic of study for biologists and wildlife experts. "It's all opinion, I guess, so you just have to reason your way through it," he said.
Josephs explained that in animals like lions infanticide — the killing of infants — makes sense from an evolutionary sense because male lions want to pass along their genes. "Why would a new alpha male spend all their time and energy raising the cubs of the old alpha male?" he asked. He added: "When you look at bears, it's different."
He explained that sows can birth give birth to cubs from different boars in a single litter, so it doesn't make sense in terms of evolution. "One thing I have seen is when an animal is small and acts like prey, the bears will treat them like prey," he said. He added that when presented with an opportunity for an easy meal, both boars and sows will take it.
