Trail cameras in Alberta, Canada, captured an extraordinary scene recently involving wild horses running for their lives from a grizzly bear.
In the accompanying footage, uploaded Thursday by Viral Hog, the horses charge past one camera with the bear following at full sprint, perhaps 40 yards behind. A second view picks up the chase, with the bear trying to close ground.
A young horse, perhaps the target, is in the mix. All of the animals look tired.
Viral hog stated that the grizzly bear was a mom with two cubs, and that the chase occurred May 26 in Central Alberta.
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From the nonprofit that captured the footage: “These trail cameras are part of a large network of cameras collecting video data on the plight and mortality of Alberta’s Wild Horses, from both natural causes and large predators.
“Help Alberta Wildies Society has been conducting this research since 2014, and uses the data to promote worldwide awareness about our threatened population of Wild Horses here in Alberta, Canada.”
The Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS) shared the same video via Facebook. The description reads, in part:
“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 post generated more than 1,000 comments from people expressing emotions ranging from sadness to anger. The most extreme sentiments called for the culling of grizzly bears, which are native to the region and the focus of an ongoing population recovery effort.
Grizzly bears can run in bursts up to 40 mph. It was not clear, however, whether the bear was successful in this chase.