Two apex predators sharing the same habitat is surely a recipe for disaster. In the case of massive bears and wolves, their friction is well-documented. Videos often surface of the two species going head to head, either over territory or food. Sometimes, wolf packs gang up on a lone bear, luring it off to get ahold of an animal carcass. However, the tables turn when a bear goes after an unguarded wolf den. Often, their rivalry plays out without humans seeing or interfering.
But, thanks to well-hidden trail cameras and video equipment, we're lucky enough to get a few more sightings like the one in the video below. It's no secret that Mother Nature can be cruel in advancing our ecosystems, but there's no way to prepare yourself for an event quite this brutal.
The researchers who set this camera up were hoping to monitor activity at a wolf den filled with young pups in Belarus. However, the situation at the den site changes dramatically when a wandering brown bear just happens to stumble across it.
With their parents nowhere in sight to defend them, they are sitting ducks for the large bruin. The bear smells the pups and begins ripping the den apart to get at them.
Unfortunately, the camera did not capture every second of the incident. That is why gaps exist between the bear starting to dig the hole and the giant crater a little later in the video. The video's description says this was because the bear moved out of range temporarily. The researchers had purposely kept the camera at a distance so they would not disturb the wolves.
The researchers could not determine if the pups died either by being buried in sand or as a meal for the hungry bruin. However, based on the behavior of the wolves later, it seems likely the pups did not survive this incident. We have seen plenty of bear/wolf fight videos here in the past where the wolves got the upper hand.
In this case, it seems the large bruin was too much for just two wolves, and they appropriately acted scared when investigating their destroyed den. It seems the bear won this round of the never-ending struggle between these two species. It may be difficult to watch, but this is the harsh reality of life in nature.
