Video: Grizzly Bear Chases, Kills Bull Elk in Yellowstone River

In a rare and shocking video that has set social media ablaze, a grizzly bear puts on an impressive display of strength and ferociousness to take down and kill a large bull elk in Yellowstone National Park.

Footage captured by B.E. Judson shows an encounter rarely witnessed by humans between a mature bull elk and a grizzly bear. The video, which can be viewed on YouTube, starts by showing the elk fleeing into Yellowstone River. If you hit pause around the :04 mark, though, you can see the elk appears to have suffered some kind of injury to his back leg on the left side. Probably from fighting with other bulls recently..

The elk makes a last ditch effort to escape the bear by heading to the middle of the river, but his plan was proven futile.

As the bear approaches the elk from the rear, the bull swings his giant antlers around and begins swinging them at the grizzly to defend itself. Still the bear pushes forward and takes the elk’s back. The elk desperately tries to shake the bear off, but appears to fade quickly. At this point, the elk attempts to move to even deeper water where he eventually loses his footing, and ultimately the battle against its ruthless predator. The bear is then left with the task of pulling the lifeless elk to shore.

Again at the 3:00 mark, while the bear tries to roll the elk over in the water, you get another look at the elk’s badly injured leg – which likely played a large roll in the elk’s inability to escape from the initial attack.

If the video doesn’t play, follow this link to YouTube to watch.

After witnessing the wild encounter, Ms. Judson said she was “startled” by the attack.

“The grizzly was successful in taking down the bull elk after only a few minutes, but it worked for around a half a hour to redirect it to the far side of the river and secure it on the east bank, about one hundred yards downstream from the north end of Hayden Valley, she wrote in the video’s description on YouTube.

OutdoorHub Editor: Keenan Crow

Keenan Crow is an outdoor writer who graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in journalism and creative writing. He has been writing for OutdoorHub for nearly five years, but anybody he is close with will tell you he has been telling hunting stories for far longer. He uses his experiences outdoors to write about things he loves - bow hunting, fishing, upland hunting, shed hunting, turkey hunting, waterfowl hunting, dog training, shotguns, ATVs and the outdoor lifestyle he lives in his home state of Michigan. Outside of hunting/fishing, he also loves to cook - especially with wild game - play golf and go on hikes with his yellow lab, Stella.