Footage captured bear-on-bear cannibalism August 30, 2023 in Dawson Creek, British Colombia, Canada.
Dawson Creek resident Susan Griffith was on her drive home when she saw a grizzly bear apparently trying to eat the remains of a black bear on the side of the road.
“This is definitely one of the craziest things we have seen on a drive home,” Griffith said of the incident on Facebook.
Griffith also had at least one child with her, who can be heard in the videos exclaiming at the sight of the two bears.
The Facebook videos show the grizzly bear mauling the remains of the seemingly lifeless black bear and dragging the corpse away from the road. It is unclear whether the grizzly bear attacked and killed the black bear, or found the remains while scavenging for food.
“Most of [British Columbia] is considered ‘Bear Country,'” according to the Bears in British Columbia blog.
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Grizzly bears are at the top of the food chain in British Columbia, but they are also known to scavenge for food.
“Grizzly bears are omnivores,” according to the National Wildlife Federation. “The most commonly eaten kinds of plants are fleshy roots, fruits, berries, [and] grasses. If grizzly bears are on the hunt, their prey can include fish (especially salmon), rodents like ground squirrels, carrion, and hoofed animals like moose, elk, caribou, and deer.
Bears sometimes eat members of their own species, including black bears when the two species share the same land.
[British Columbia] “is lucky to have both black bears and grizzly bears. But, as human areas expand into wild bear habitat, bear encounters become a normal part of life,” the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals wrote.