Wildlife fans witness vicious killings of grizzly cubs by adult female bears in shocking attacks

It was a grizzly sight.

Wildlife watchers got an eyeful as they witnessed two grizzly bear cubs killed by adult bears in separate recent incidents at the same national park.

The killings took place at Alaska’s Katmai National Park within days of each other and were streamed live on Explore.org, a popular site that broadcasts live feeds of wildlife to thousands of watchers daily.

On July 28, an adult female bear killed and ate a cub near a river in the park. Just days later on August 2, another cub died after it was attacked by a different adult female bear, park staff confirmed in a Monday live-streamed Q&A.

“I want to acknowledge that this is not an easy thing to watch, especially coming off of the heels of witnessing another cub death just last week,” said park ranger Sarah Bruce. “And so, it’s definitely not easy.”

Park staff said the killings could be the result of an unusually crowded summer for the bears.

“When we have over 30 cubs, in addition to the 60 to 80 regular bears that come to the falls every year, that’s a lot of bears in Brooks Camp. They could be stressed because of just the sheer number of bears that are on the river,” said Bruce.

Last week, an adult female bear charged at another bear’s cub while her own were nearby. Later in the feed, she was seen eating the remains of the cub, KTUU reports.

In Sunday’s dramatic incident, three cubs belonging to another bear went up into a tree and were followed by one of bear 355’s cubs. The mother of the first three cubs went after bear 355’s cub, pulling it out of the tree and causing significant injuries that led to death.

“A female went after 335’s cub, attacked it in a tree, and pulled it out, significantly injuring it,” Bruce said.

On Monday morning, park staff located the cub’s carcass and removed it from the park in order to reduce the risk of dangerous encounters with bear 355.

“Dead bears along the river pose harm to not only humans in the area, but also the other bears, and it can just create really sticky situations,” Bruce said.

“So, the dead bears are relocated to other areas in the park where nature can sort of take its course and all of the energy and the nutrients that that bear has go feed back into the ecosystem.”

Bear 355, who staff says is around 6 years old and is raising her first litter, has been spotted with her two remaining cubs since the incident.

“She has been seen in the area still kind of huffing and looking for her cub,” Bruce said. “It’s likely that she knows her cub is dead. She’s still just kind of in that grieving process before she moves on from the area.”

The National Park Service does not intervene with animal illnesses, injuries, and deaths, opting to allow nature to take its course.

Bruce suggested concerned viewers direct their energy toward something positive.

“Situations like these can often make us feel helpless,” Bruce said. “I encourage folks to take that energy — to want to do something for this bear, for this community, for the park — and put that energy into a need in your local community, and kind of make something good out of something really not great.”