iStockphoto / gnagel/Karel Bock/Ingo Dörenberg
It is a busy time right now in Yellowstone National Park with the grizzly bears waking up from hibernation as Spring weather brings the park back to life. Wildlife photographer Julie Argyle witnessed this Spring awakening firsthand last week while capturing two of the park’s apex predators butting heads.
While watching a pack of gray wolves feeding on a carcass, she took notice of something rustling nearby. That is when one of the iconic grizzly bears in Yellowstone burst onto the scene and a primordial battle between wolf and bear broke out.
Yellowstone National Park: Wolves vs Grizzly Bears
Thankfully, when it was all said and done the only animal that seems to have been worse off is the carcass everyone was chowing down on in the first place. The Yellowstone grizzly came running in like Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball. As the saying goes, ‘that’s a bold strategy, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for him.’
In the caption, Julie Argyle wrote “A carcass, wolves, and a ginormous grizzly. After watching wolves feed on a carcass for most of the day, we noticed something moving near the tree line. There, coming towards the carcass at a dead run was this amazing Grizzly. The wolves had retreated to the sage and most were sleeping, unaware of the bear. Once the Bear reached the area where the wolves were, the wolves must’ve smelled him, and they immediately let out a low howl, stopping the bear in his tracks, and then all chaos broke out.”
Grizzly bears wake from their seasonal hibernation hungry. They pretty much wake up, shake off the grogginess, and immediately start searching for a hearty meal because it has been a long time since their bellies were full.
So what we have here is a borderline starving grizzly bear finding a carcass only to be ambushed by a pack of gray wolves who are willing to fight it out like a pack of velociraptors. Thankfully, for everyone watching, they weren’t forced to witness the untimely demise of a grizzly bear or wolf in Yellowstone National Park.
After this video went viral a few days ago, Pete Thomas from FTW spoke with Julie Argyle about the encounter. She told him the carcass was just out of sight from their vantage point, that the bear did in fact reach the carcass, but 20 minutes later it came barrelling back as the wolves were “chasing it back up the slope and up to the tree line.”
Is This A Common Sight In Yellowstone?
While battles between wolves and grizzly bears are not at all common in the National Park, when they do happen they often gain a lot of attention. This video of a pack of six wolves stealing a grizzly bear’s meal from back in the Fall went viral and has 1.4 million views in the past 4 months while the bears were hibernating.
Have you ever seen anything like this in Yellowstone? Got a cool story to share? Reach out anytime at cass@brobible.com.