Employees preparing a Montana hotel for its June 3 opening witnessed an extraordinary saga involving a hungry grizzly bear and momma moose with two newborn calves.
The accompanying video clip, showing the moose chasing the grizzly bear down a road and to the water, and the bear smashing into a hotel window, has been shared by various sources without photographer credit since Sunday.
The footage, however, does not provide context or explain the larger story, which involved the predation of at least one of the moose calves by the grizzly bear.
Moose vs Grizzly pic.twitter.com/ZefPYT28L9
— Cozy Cowboy (@cozyCowpoke) May 29, 2022
Other clips, likewise, showed what transpired in bits and pieces at the Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park. One shows the bear attacking one of the calves as momma moose stands in the lake. The footage, which can be viewed here, might be disturbing to watch.
RELATED: A fascinating look at a Yellowstone grizzly bear’s last days
At the time of this post, precise details were sparse. But Joshua Camareno, an employee at the property, told FTW Outdoors that the moose family’s ordeal began Friday and lasted at least into Sunday evening.
During that period, Camareno said, the grizzly bear took the calf into the woods and returned for the second calf a few hours later, “and that’s when the mom chased him off.”
Camareno said that on Sunday evening, National Park Service rangers used a hazing technique to scare momma moose and her remaining calf back into the woods.
“I’ve seen the grizzly come back twice since then, looking for it,” Camareno said late Monday.
Camareno also posted a clip to Instagram, writing: “Seeing this happen over the past two days wasn’t easy, but so glad I got to experience this first-hand.”
–Moose image is generic, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
