What are the odds that a bear biologist turned podcaster captures the moment a grizzly bear chases a moose through a campground on video? They might be incalculable but that's what happened.
Last week, Wes Larson, host of the Tooth and Claw Podcast, visited Site 26 of Soda Butte Campground in Montana. He explained that he pulled into the deserted campground and saw the dark shape of a moose through the trees. So he drove closer to take a photograph, but it turned out, he wasn't the only one watching it.
In the video, the moose runs and stops in front of Larson's vehicle. It looks back and then quickly turns its head forward. After it trots away, a grizzly comes barreling through the grounds. Then, Larson rotates the camera and sticks it out of the driver's side window. By that point, the bear has almost closed the gap. The moose follows along the trail around the corner along with the bear.
Larson explained that the bear was unsuccessful in its attempt at catching the moose. He later saw it grazing on clover in a nearby field. Yet, maybe the odds of Larson seeing such an encounter were better than average.
On Tuesday I went to an empty campground in Montana because it was the location of a fatal grizzly attack we covered on Tooth and Claw (my podcast). I saw a moose in the campground and went to take a short video of it...it ended up being a better video than I expected pic.twitter.com/B0KFEpBvrd
— Wes Larson (@grizkidd) June 16, 2024
The site where a grizzly bear killed Kevin Kammer
On his podcast, Larson covers animal attacks. Last summer, he told the story of Kevin Kammer, a man who was pulled out of his tent by a grizzly bear with cubs and eaten. Larson was visiting the location of the attack.
The incident happened in 2010 near the Soda Butte Campground in Gallatin National Forest. Experts described it as a highly unusual predatory attack. The bears attacked three different people in three different tents. However, Kammer was the only one killed.
Immediately following the incident, the U.S. Forest Service closed the site. Forest rangers also found and relocated the bears. Since then, the grounds remain closed for tent camping, but it's open for hard-sided vehicles between July 1 and Sept. 7.
