Footage showing bear cub’s prolonged assault on camera has folks in Alberta worried about what’s to come this spring.
A group that supports the conservation of wild horses in Alberta, Canada, has shared footage from last July, showing a grizzly bear cub’s prolonged assault on a trail camera fixed to a tree.
“Another few weeks and we can start watching for tracks as these guys wake up come out looking for something to eat,” Help Alberta Wildies Society stated Sunday via Facebook. “This cub was totally committed to getting our camera off of that tree.”
While the cub seemed intent on claiming a new toy, many HAWS followers expressed concern about the threat grizzly bears pose for the region’s free-roaming horses. (Click here to view the footage if a video player doesn’t appear below.)
“Prayers for all the horses and their babies on the way,” reads the top comment.
To be sure, when grizzly bears emerge from hibernation on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, wild horses, especially foals, will be on the menu.
HAWS cameras have captured several scenes showing bears chasing horses. One of the more dramatic scenes was captured in May 2022, showing horses running for their lives with a grizzly bear perhaps 40 yards behind charging at full sprint.
In its description, HAWS wrote: “The next time someone tells you that the Wild Horses have no natural predators, send them to me. We are losing a lot of horses this year, sooner and quicker than in past years. Not just the foals. Adults also.”
The University of Notre Dame was founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1842. Two members have since been beatified or canonized by the Catholic Church. Now, those members of that congregation have connections to the football team’s two most recent national championship games.
The Irish last played for a national title during the BCS Championship Game that followed the 2012 season. That game took place Jan. 7, which is the day Canada observes the feast day of Andre Bessette, who joined the congregation in 1870 and is its first and, to date, only saint. He was canonized in 2010.
The Irish’s upcoming College Football Playoff title game appearance is scheduled for Jan. 20, which is the day the Church remembers Basil Moreau, the congregation’s founder who was beatified in 2007. It was Moreau who sent the [autotag]Rev. Edward Sorin[/autotag] and six brothers of the congregation to northern Indiana, where they eventually founded Notre Dame.
Here’s a video the university released about Moreau ahead of his beatification:
Given all of this, maybe the stars are aligning for the Irish to finally break their national championship drought.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.
Footage shows the wolves searching for an opening, but the stallion and herd mates weren’t about to give them one.
A group that studies wild horses in Alberta, Canada, on Monday shared trail-cam footage showing a stallion and herd members intently defending a foal from wolves.
“A lot of people ask us if the Stallion would try to protect his foal from wolves,” Help Alberta Wildies Society stated via Facebook. “This short video will give you an idea of what that might look like.”
The footage (posted below), which HAWS said was captured a year ago, shows the stallion leading a determined effort to cut off the wolves’ advances. (Click here if video player doesn’t appear below.)
Viewers will note that the wolves steer clear of the larger horses (and their hooves) but remain persistent in trying to single out the foal.
Reads the top comment: “The wolves want them to run so they can separate their intended prey and isolate it to take it down. When the herds stand their ground and put the foals in the center the predators tend to look for easier prey.”
The outcome was not clear, but the horses appear determined to hold their ground.
On a related topic, HAWS also has clips showing horses running from grizzly bears, which can sprint up to 35 mph. The bears, like the wolves, are hoping to catch a weary foal or a larger horse to fall and become injured.
In 2022, we featured one such chase that also involved a foal, with the grizzly in close pursuit. HAWS was quoted:
“The next time someone tells you that the Wild Horses have no natural predators, send them to me. We are losing a lot of horses this year, sooner and quicker than in past years. Not just the foals. Adults also.”
It was not clear if the bear was successful in its chase.
Great to hear a present Irish player laud a past one.
[autotag]Cassandre Prosper[/autotag] missed most of her first full season with Notre Dame with an injury. However, making Canada’s Olympic women’s basketball team was a nice consolation prize. Even better, she was teammates with [autotag]Natalie Achonwa[/autotag], another name familiar to anyone who’s followed the Irish over the past 15 years.
Prosper sat down with Crina Mustafa of Her Hoop Stats to talk about a variety of topics, but her Olympic experience with Achonwa was a real highlight of the interview. Prosper specifically talked about how much she was blown away by Achonwa not only as a leader and mentor to the younger players on the team but also as a mother.
You can view Prosper’s entire interview here starting at 16:39:
With the Olympics finished, all Irish fans will be anxious to see how Prosper contributes to a team with national championship aspirations. Only time will tell.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.
Footage from Canada’s Yukon Territory shows an extremely plump grizzly bear that seems beyond ready for hibernation.
A trail camera in Canada’s Yukon Territory has captured footage featuring an extremely plump grizzly bear that seems beyond ready for hibernation.
“This rotund grizzly sure knows how to prep for the big sleep that awaits,” David Troup of Yukon Wildlife Cams stated this week via Facebook, in reference to the impending hibernation season. “While not the biggest grizzly I’ve captured on camera, definitely the fattest, which is meant in the most admirable of ways.”
Understandably, Troup’s followers were impressed enough to chime in.
One suggested that the bear is pregnant, to which Troup replied, “Nope, just fat.”
Another remarked that the bear could have been a contender in the annual Fat Bear Week competition that features coastal brown bears of the Brooks River in Alaska’s Katmai National Park.
Another comment: “Great footage, you can see he/she is very content, even looking happy.”
Troup’s reply: “It looks like its eyes are even closed as it walks along.”
The top comment refers to lyrics in the 1978 song by Queen, “Fat Bottomed Girls.” The revised verse: “Fat bottom bears they make this rocking world go round.”
Offensive line injuries have forced the Saints to tap into the depth on their practice squad. Rookie guard Kyle Hergel is set to make his NFL debut:
Sunday’s game with the Atlanta Falcons will mark the regular season debut for Kyle Hergel. Offensive line injuries have forced the New Orleans Saints to tap into the depth on their practice squad — starting center Erik McCoy and right guard Cesar Ruiz are both unavailable, so the team chose Hergel as their lone elevation from the practice squad for Week 4.
While he was the primary backup for Ruiz at right guard throughout training camp, the Saints may choose to bring Hergel in off the bench with a veteran like Landon Young starting instead.
He’s taken a unique path to the NFL. Hergel is Canadian, and he made a couple of different stops in college football before turning pro out of Boston College. That experience proved invaluable in preparing him for the next level, and even if he didn’t make the 53-man roster it’s clear the Saints have a role in mind for him. Let’s see if he can seize this opportunity, however it manifests.
“I’m definitely expecting more crowds to be louder and for them to be on our side.”
The International team wants more from the home crowd.
It was a drubbing Thursday at the 2024 Presidents Cup, with the United States winning all five matches and taking a 5-0 lead heading into Friday’s foursomes at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada. The Internationals were close in a handful of matches late, but the United States made putts and clutch shots down the stretch as the International team faltered.
At the end of the day, there wasn’t much to cheer on for the Canadian fans in Montreal, but a couple players were wanting more from the fans after the opening day of play.
“We need to get louder, I think, the next few days here and really feel the home support,” said Canadian Taylor Pendrith.
Added Tom Kim, who broke out as a star at the Presidents Cup in 2022: “Definitely when the crowds are with us, it definitely helps when you can kind of get loud. Like Taylor said, I think it was a little too quiet today being on home soil. I don’t think the fans were really — I wish they would have helped us out a bit more, especially being in Canada. I know how much they love golf.
“I’m definitely expecting more crowds to be louder and for them to be on our side.”
A better showing from the International team will held the crowd get back into it as the Presidents Cup moves into the weekend, but there’s no doubt a raucous home crowd is needed for the Internationals to have any chance of a comeback.
“I thought the crowds were good today,” International captain Mike Weir said. “I think you get a little momentum going on your side, that’s when the crowds can get going. I think everybody is excited, nervous, and I think the crowds are going to be louder and louder as we go along here.”
“It’s nice to actually feel like we have an actual home crowd.”
One of the best parts of team competitions is the home crowd.
In the Ryder Cup, whether the competition is in the United States or Europe, the opposing team is going to deal with constant jeering, raucous applause and more from the fans.
The Americans always have a home-field advantage, with events on home soil being a big advantage regardless of which team competition it is. For the Internationals, this year is bound to be different from the past. And that’s a key if the Internationals want to get their first win since 1998.
“It’s a big part of this competition, I believe, and a big part of team golf where you can ride some momentum and the crowd gets behind you, and you can really feed off that,” International captain Mike Weir said. “I certainly did here in 2007, not only with my match playing Tiger, but just the other matches, you get the crowd energy, and you can raise your level a little bit. So it can be a huge factor.”
One of the challenges the Internationals have faced is trying to unify golfers from around the world for a week to take down the Americans, who compete in team competitions every single year. The Internationals are forced to get people from numerous continents to bond and come together to take down an often-time overmatched foe, and that’s not always simple.
The Presidents Cup has been hosted in Australia, Canada, South Africa and South Korea, which is a home game for a handful of players on the International team. For the rest of the players, though they’re on the same team as the hometown favorites, they’re still outsiders to the fans.
On Tuesday during the pre-tournament press conferences ahead of the 2024 Presidents Cup, Weir and some of his players raved about the Canadian crowd and how it seems different this year. In the past, many International fans were infatuated with cheering for American stars like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson as much as they were pulling for their country’s players to have success.
Canadian fans likely won’t be as starstruck.
Jason Day of Australia and the International Team reacts during a practice round prior to the 2024 Presidents Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Club on September 24, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
“It’s going to be interesting,” Jason Day said. “This is probably the closest home game that I’ve played in front of because when we go down to Australia, I think they’re just so excited to see everyone because we don’t get a lot of golf down there, like especially the big names. In Canada, it’s obviously so close to the United States, and there’s like that friendly rivalry between the two countries, so it’s nice to actually feel like we have an actual home crowd. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that before in the times that I’ve played.”
In addition to the friendly rivalry between the countries, there’s a PGA Tour event every year in Canada. Numerous Canadian teams play in American sports leagues, so fans north of the border are familiar with stars across all sports.
When it comes to golf, they will pull for their Canadians over anyone, and this week, it’s the International shield they’ll be backing.
“We’re certainly hoping the fans come out hard and cheer a lot for our guys,” Weir said. “Hopefully it is a factor.”
Momma grizzly bear and two large cubs have a wary audience in wild horses that appear ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble.
A trail camera in Canada’s Yukon Territory has captured an interesting scene involving a momma grizzly bear and two cubs being watched intently by wild horses.
“A beautiful grizzly family strolls along on a recent autumn morning as cautious eyes watch from afar,” David Troup of Yukon Wildlife Cams described Thursday via Facebook.
Viewers will note that the horses appear frozen into the landscape; they’re that wary of the bears and making a move that might prompt a predatory charge. (Click here if a video player does not appear below.)
Troup told FTW Outdoors that his camera captured this scene Sept. 15 and added that he was not aware of grizzly bear predation involving this group of horses.
Grizzly bears will sometimes chase horses in the hope of catching a tired foal or causing a large horse to fall.
The scene captured by Troup’s camera is reminiscent of a dramatic scene captured by a trail-cam network in 2022 in Alberta, Canada, involving grizzly bears chasing horses that were clearly running for their lives.
Regarding that scene, the Help Alberta Wildies Society stated on Facebook: “The next time someone tells you that the Wild Horses have no natural predators, send them to me.
“We are losing a lot of horses this year, sooner and quicker than in past years. Not just the foals. Adults also.”
The Notre Dame men’s golf team had to make up 11 shots on the last day of the Canadian Collegiate Invitational to win it. With skill and a bit of luck (no pun intended), the Irish were able to make the shots necessary to do just that. They shot 17-under-par over the three rounds for a final score of 847, five shots better than Missouri and Michigan.
The Irish, who were tied with the Wolverines in second to start the final round, shot 6-under during the final round at Oviinbyrd Golf Club in MacTier, Ontario, benefiting from the Tigers shooting a 10-over. The Irish tied with fifth-place Michigan State for the best score of the round.
All four Irish golfers included in the scoring shot under par in the last round. [autotag]Nate Stevens[/autotag] and [autotag]Rocco Salvitti[/autotag] shot 2-under, and [autotag]Jacob Modleski[/autotag] and [autotag]Mike Qiu[/autotag] were 1-under. Stevens had the best overall score for the Irish, tying for eighth with a 6-under 210.
The Irish’s next tournament will be the Windon Memorial Classic, hosted by Northwestern on Sept. 29 and 30.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.
