Wolf Stands By and Observes As Two Grizzly Bears Fight in The Middle of Canadian Street

A new video from Canada shows two raucous bears engaging in a spectacular brawl in the middle of the British Columbia wilderness.

The two bears snarl at one other at first, as if testing each other’s limits, before standing on their hind legs and shoving each other like two fellas in a bar brawl. A few shoves and thwacks by the two send them stumbling into the center of the road, where they lock into a full nelson while pawing at one other’s necks.

Pause at 47 seconds and carefully move your cursor forward for the show-stopper – a wolf down the road leisurely observing the whole event. The two bears continue to struggle off the pavement and into the bushes, sliding off the side of the road and chasing each other back into it, unaware of their audience.

“By far one of my favorite animal experiences I have ever had!!” said Cari McGillivray, the lady who took the footage. The film was shot on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, a lengthy road that connects Alaska with the lower 48 states via the British Columbia wilderness. Its secluded position makes it an ideal viewing point for breathtaking landscape and animals, including big, brawling bears.

Despite being driven to near extinction in the United States by human activity, brown bear populations – of which grizzlies are a subspecies – remain widespread in most of Canada and Alaska, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Canadian government estimates that there are around 15,000 individual grizzly bears in British Columbia, which accounts for roughly one-quarter of the total North American population.

Ursus arctos may grow to be as tall as 2.4 meters (8 feet) and as heavy as 363 kilograms (800 pounds), making them a top-of-the-food-chain predator when necessary (though they tend to feed off of nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, and roots).

Why the two bears were fighting is unknown. Grizzlies interact with one another by a combination of noises, motions, and scents, according to the National Wildlife Foundation. When two male bears are both interested in the same female, they will battle for the opportunity to mate with her. Grizzlies, on the other hand, mate between May and July and hibernate in the late fall or early winter.

The video was initially shared on Facebook on Friday and has received over 54,000 shares as of the time of publishing.