Grizzly vs Moose, Denali National Park

As a followup to my previous post about Denali National Park, here is a video I found while reading my favorite online newspaper Alaska Dispatch.   This amazing clip, which was filmed by Florida photographer Joe Vogan , shows a grizzly bear stalking a moose and her two newborn calves.  The mother moose charges the bear repeatedly until the bear finally decides that she is too formidable.  It is certainly worth a look!

Grizzly stalks moose calves, Denali National Park, Alaska from Florida Images on Vimeo..  Grizzly vs moose.  Used with permission from Joe Vogan.

Many residents of Alaska and the western United States believe that predator numbers should be controled heavily so that more prey species, like moose, caribou and deer, can be available for human harvest.  We are lucky to have regions like Denali National Park that are protected from all hunting and predator control, so that the laws of natural selection can rule the land.  Moose have evolved their power and tenacity for defending their young through thousands of years of interactions just like this..  It is also true that too few predators and too many prey can lead to barren, decimated habitat.   Scenes like this play out every day in Denali, just as they always have, and always should.

Thanks for sharing this with us Joe! Keep it up!

The king of the tundra. Picture taken by (c) Jean-Pierre Lavoie, permission through Wikipedia commons.