Yellowstone National Park tourists witnessed a heart-breaking scene Sunday involving a subadult male grizzly bear that was savagely attacked by an adult male bear that was courting his mother.
Moments beforehand, the mother bear also attacked the subadult, perhaps in an attempt to scare him away from the boar.
During the subsequent attack by the male grizzly, estimated to weigh more than 500 pounds, the 148-pound, 3-year-old subadult sustained severe injuries and was later euthanized by park staff.
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The incident has been discussed widely via social media. Park aficionados have expressed sorrow and struggled to grasp why this occurred. Some blamed tourists for crowding the roadside bears, perhaps altering their behavior.
Anger also stemmed from an incident the previous week, during which tourists illegally tossed food to the subadult bear.
But the presence of tourists does not appear to have been a factor in causing the attack. Adult male grizzly bears hoping to mate with female bears will attack and sometimes kill nearby cubs or young bears, even in the deepest wilderness.
“The subadult is confirmed to be a male, which is not going to be tolerated by another male in the territory,” Trent Sizemore, a veteran wildlife photographer from West Yellowstone, Montana, told FTW Outdoors. “No humans pushed any of these bears to cause this specific incident.”
Sizemore first photographed the subadult bear in 2019, after he emerged from a den as a young-of-the-year cub. Last spring, momma bear “kicked him out” to fend for himself, Sizemore said. But he continued to feed in the same general area, spanning a few miles.
On Sunday morning, the three bears were foraging in a field close to the road in the Roaring Mountain/Clearwater Springs area.
What happened shortly after 10 a.m. is described in the following timeline provided to FTW Outdoors on Tuesday by the Yellowstone National Park Public Affairs office:
–On May 22 at approximately 10:15 a.m., a subadult grizzly bear, estimated to be 2-3 years old, was attacked and severely injured by a mating pair of grizzly bears in the Roaring Mountain/Clearwater Springs area.
–The male subadult bear, weighing 148 pounds, was seen digging on the roadside prior to the attack, unaware that a mating pair of grizzly bears was approaching it.
–The female of the mating pair aggressively attacked the subadult bear. It was then able to temporarily free itself, but the large male grizzly, estimated to be over 500 pounds, attacked and pinned it to the ground before leaving it. The subadult bear attempted to get up, which caused the male bear to attack it a second time by grabbing and shaking its neck and head.
–Bear management staff arrived on scene and observed the subadult bear for an hour and determined that it was not going to survive.
–Staff hazed the mating pair away from the road, moved visitors from the scene, and then euthanized the subadult bear and removed it from the roadside.
–Biologists performed a necropsy on the bear and determined it suffered significant injuries, including massive head, neck and spinal wounds, a broken right shoulder and a laceration in the right flank exposing its organs.
Definitely not a scene most visitors would want to witness, but a prime example of Yellowstone as a wild universe where life is difficult for all critters, young and old.
–Images used with the permission of Trent Sizemore Photography
