Eight-foot-tall grizzly bears fight just feet from 'physically sick' tourists

12 December 2023 , 10:46

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Eight-foot-tall grizzly bears fight just feet from 'physically sick' tourists

A tourist has told of feeling "physically sick" from the violence as she watched two grizzly bears fighting just metres away.

A tour boat was passing at the moment when the fierce mating battle took place in a bay in British Columbia, Canada, and it left people on board shocked, especially being so close to it happening.

Vanessa Obran and her husband John, who were on a tour of a bay in British Columbia, Canada, filmed the fight and afterwards she said she can't watch back parts of the video due to the violence. The conflict began when they spotted two bears mating on the shore.

Two bears seen fighting in Canada (SWNS)

Then footage captured the moment a jealous male sprinted across the shale and tackled one of the mating pair and pinned it to the ground. In an epic 17 minute encounter, the two bears tore chunks of flesh off each other with their teeth and paws, and even took their fight into the water.

Vanessa, from Australia, said: “While filming, the violence made me feel physically sick to the stomach. I love bears so much and the violence was so hard to watch. There are parts of the video that I don’t watch now as it is distressing. One minute we were watching a tranquil scene of two bears mating on the beach. We thought how lovely, that is something you don’t see very often. Then all hell broke loose.

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The footage was filmed by tourists on a passing boat (SWNS)

“They were fighting over mating rights. Both bears had a lot of injuries, cuts and bites. They were about 8ft tall on their hind legs. I had filmed a bear fight before in Alaska but it was only a few swipes. Nothing as brutal as this. Having said that, I knew what a rare occurrence this was to witness and I feel so lucky to have been there at the right time and right place.

The bears were fighting over a mate (SWNS)

"To see them fight for so long is nearly unheard of. Wildlife guides we have since spoken to, who have been watching bears for 30 years, have never seen anything like it. We made our first trip to Yellowstone National Park in 2012 where we saw our first wild grizzly bear. We were hooked. Since then we go to the US and Canada every two years and spend up to three months going to the National Parks to see bears, moose, wolves. Any animal at all we are happy to spot. It becomes an addiction. It is so thrilling to spot an animal in the wild.”

Tim Hanlon