A family of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park sent a herd of bison running to escape, and in the herd were several newborn about to experience a river crossing for the first time.
While most of the calves jumped right into the water, one hesitant calf needing a bit of prodding. It’s mother pushed it off the bank and into the water, as seen around the 2:20 mark of the video captured by Ron Sterbenz.
Sterbenz told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors that the bison mom “was done with her calf hesitating to cross so she head-butted him right into the river.”
The incident occurred in Lamar Valley last month .
“It is always amazing when you remember that for many of these calves they were just born a few days before,” Sterbenz told For The Win Outdoors. “Most of them had never swam or seen a river until that day. They were being chased off the ‘Amethyst Bench’ area in the Lamar Valley and towards the Lamar River by three grizzlies, one sow and her two 3-year-old cubs, all three clearly wanting to have a bison meal.”
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The video also shows the difficulties newborn bison face while crossing a river.
“At the end of the herd were also two smaller calves who were frightened and delayed crossing until they were the last two,” Sterbenz said. “They barely made the first crossing and immediately faced crossing an even larger, faster moving branch of the river.
“After struggling for some time even the moms began to panic. Amazingly, at about the last part of the river before they would be washed away, they find a sandbar just shallow enough to keep their little noses above water. In the end they just barely make it, exhausted, cold and tired. They are still forced to run and catch up to the herd.
“We were sure they would take a break on the island and if not, we thought we would see a drowning or two from the panicked crossing.”
Instead, they managed to cross and see another day.