A couple enjoying a quiet night at home captured a very rare wildlife encounter on video. In the footage shot in British Columbia’s Port McNeil, a small black bear fleeing a larger bear climbs to the very top of a tall tree only to attacked by bald eagles. The bear’s troubles didn’t end there as he was followed up to the tree by the second bear!
Terry Eissfeldt, who shot the video, was playing Cribbage with her husband in their home when he called her to look off their deck. She wrote on YouTube:
We couldn’t believe our eyes – a black bear in our eagle tree but then we were really shocked when something else joined him…
A quiet Saturday night playing Cribbage was interrupted when my husband yelled, ‘Get your camera!’
The small bear was first to reach the top of the tree where he disrupted two eagles roosting. The angry birds swooped at the smaller bear before leaving when the larger bear climbed to the top branch too, forcing the smaller bear out on the tree limb.
“We watched for about 45 minutes and the little guy just laid down – he was still up there when the sun was gone. Guess we’ll check in the morning to see if he’s still there,” wrote Eissfelt.
Though Eissfeldt originally thought the two bears were mother and cub, their neighbor, who happens to be a wildlife photographer, clarified that the small bear was fleeing the larger bear as result of a territory dispute.
After viewing his neighbor’s video, Anthony Bucci wrote, “the larger bear chased the smaller bear up the tree. As the chase was on the smaller bear eventually went as high as possible (to the top). In the video at around 1:07 you can see the smaller bear in a defensive posture and ears folded back ready to fight back. The smaller bear slowly backing away to the outer limbs of the branch it was on.”
Buccie continues, “The bigger bear finally came down the tree and carried on, The smaller bear stayed in the tree over night and finally came down today at around 12:45pm.”
He added that the eagles in the tree were not actively using the tree to nest in but do use it as a roost (although the tree was once home to an eagle nest).
Eissfeldt confirms that the small bear did stay up the tree all night. She resumed filming around 6am the following morning and “He finally came down at 12:30pm” and climbed down safely. She made a compilation of over 5 hours of watching the bear in the tree in a second video.
What an incredible thing to see! Eissfeldt added a third video showing one of the bears eating their newly grassed lawn.
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