Video shows wild horses trying to outrun attacking grizzly bear

A nonprofit that monitors wild horse populations in Alberta, Canada, on Saturday shared dramatic trail-cam footage of wild horses fleeing an attacking grizzly bear.

“This 2023 Grizzly chase will remind us what we will once again be seeing in just a month or two,” Help Alberta Wildies Society explained via social media, in reference to the end of the grizzly bear hibernation period. “Many of the sub-adult wild horses that we counted this past week will not make it till June.”

In the footage, 11 horses are shown sprinting past the camera, with the grizzly bear appearing seconds behind. (Click here if video player does not appear below.)

While grizzly bears generally can’t outrun fleeing adult horses, they do catch younger horses or foals, or any horses that might fall during the pursuit.

In 2022, HAWS shared extraordinary footage showing a grizzly bear almost on the heels of wild horses, including a foal.

The HAWS description:

“The next time someone tells you that the Wild Horses have no natural predators, send them to me. We are losing a lot of horses this year, sooner and quicker than in past years. Not just the foals. Adults also.”

The “unique-to-Alberta” horses monitored by HAWS have inhabited the foothills of the Canadian Rockies for hundreds of years.