Bear Cub Steals A Meal From Its Mama In Yellowstone National Park

You’d think a mother bear could trust her own offspring.

It’s tough to tell if this mother is upset or impressed with her cubs showing off some aggressiveness. Mother sows usually raise their cubs for around a year and a half before they go off to live life on their own. At some point, the mom must know that her babies are able to fend for themselves, and she cuts them loose.

This might be that moment.

Though there’s also a chance that this is just a family practice run, and the mother bear is preparing her younglings to fight for their own food. After all, they say a mother knows best, so maybe this sow knows that doing some run throughs for food battles could pay off for her cubs in the grand scheme of things.

The video that’s captured of this incident is remarkable. A guide that works within Yellowstone National Park just so happened to be in the right place at the right time when this mother bear and her cubs came barreling out of the woods, and described the incident – and apologized for messing up in parts of the footage – with the following message:

“On my way to guide Yellowstone today I ran into momma bear fighting with her cubs over breakfast. Sorry for the bad camera skills! I had a flashback to when I got charged four years ago, so it’s hard not to flinch.”

I think just about anyone would flinch if they saw that many angry, aggressive bears sprinting out of the trees and right towards their vehicle.

It’s unclear what the bears are fighting over, but it’s very clear that the cub ultimately steals it away from its mom and runs back into the woods with it. I’d have to imagine that the mother bear is partially proud that one of her cubs was able to come away with the meal… and as for the other cub that was also trailing along, it could probably use a little more practice.

Check it out: