Wes Larson, a bear biologist and host of the Tooth and Claw podcast, was checking out the site of a fatal mauling he covered on his show, when he ended up in the middle of a grizzly-moose chase. He quips on Twitter: “I saw a moose in the campground and went to take a short video of it . . . it ended up being a better video than I expected.”
In an Instagram post sharing the video, Larson says he was visiting the Soda Butte Campground in Montana where a grizzly bear killed Kevin Kammer back in 2010. He had covered this story on his podcast and wanted to do a drive through, since he was nearby.
“The campground was deserted and the gate was unlocked so I drove in,” he wrote. “On the other side of the campground I saw the dark shape of a moose in the trees, so I moved closer to capture it with my camera. Turns out I wasn’t the only one watching the moose . . .”
In the video, Larson first focuses on a moose that emerges from the trees near his vehicle. The moose stops in front of the car and glances behind it, before running around the car. A grizzly bear then appears from the trees, follows the moose’s path around Larson’s car, and chases the moose off into the distance.
Watch Larson’s accidental video of a grizzly-moose chase here:
On Tuesday I went to an empty campground in Montana because it was the location of a fatal grizzly attack we covered on Tooth and Claw (my podcast). I saw a moose in the campground and went to take a short video of it…it ended up being a better video than I expected pic.twitter.com/B0KFEpBvrd
— Wes Larson (@grizkidd) June 16, 2024
Another Surprise
Larson got a second surprise when he realized exactly where he was when this chase went down.
“After the interaction was over and the unsuccessful bear grazed on clover in a field nearby, I checked the site number where the chase had just unfolded,” he wrote on Instagram. “It was Site 26, the very same location of the fatal mauling 14 years ago.”
If you ever camp at Soda Butte Campground, particularly site 26, bring your bear spray.