Nature Cam Finds Wild Horses Booking It To Run Away From Hungry Grizzly

During the early hours of June 16, two trail cameras fixed to trees in the Canadian Rocky Mountains reveal a massive grizzly bear chasing after a herd of wild horses. The video was uploaded online by the Help Alberta Wildies Society, a non-profit organization that promotes the preservation of wild horses throughout the province. 

On the day prior to the pursuit, we first observe a herd of about nine horses, largely mature horses  with a few young foals mingled in. We can see the band of horses on camera crossing a brook at roughly 6:00 AM the next day. 

A large grizzly bear enters the picture a short time later, charging through the water and pursuing the horses. Thanks to there being two cameras filming, you can see the interaction from two unique perspectives. 

On their trail cameras, Help Alberta Wildies Society frequently records interactions between wild horses and other species. In another video, a lone wolf is walking along the right portion of the picture as two horses approach. 

Do Grizzly Bears Eat Horses?

Grizzlies are busy hunting ungulates throughout a large portion of their reduced range, adding the flesh to their extremely open omnivorous diets. But, do they eat horses? As summer develops, grizzlies can cheerfully switch over to thriving plant-based diets, like berries, and maybe anticipate taking out the occasional horse.

Horses aren’t the easiest animal to catch in the wild. Feral horses also don’t experience a lot of predation stress in many regions of their range since important predators from nature like wolves and mountain lions are no longer in the same areas.

As the video shows, when bears and mustangs do share an environment, they could pose a hazard to young or injured horses. Despite the fact that they rarely hunt horses, bears have the ability to attack them if they suddenly emerge. 

It’s believed that the mustangs in this area crossed into bear territory and the apex predator simply didn’t like it. The other possibility is that this is a mama bear that was protecting her cubs. 

Can a Horse or Bear Run Faster?

There are fewer records of running wild horses since it is harder to capture their speeds. But among the records already in existence, a wild Mustang’s top speed is 54 miles per hour. While some Mustangs are pets, the majority still roam freely. 

The average speed of a Mustang is somewhere in the range of 25 to 30 miles per hour. Grizzly bears, on the other hand, can run at high speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour, making them the fastest members of the Ursidae family. 

Although they can’t sustain this extraordinary speed for very long, they are incredibly quick sprinters.