It started as one of your typical Yellowstone May mornings. The air was crisp with no breeze, smelling lightly of sage and pine trees - with the slightest hint of sulpher, a combination distinct to the Northern Range. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen in one of the bluest Montana skies I have ever experienced. It was deep blue, like the blue of a star sapphire; so deep that one got lost staring into it. The sun felt warm, and when it combined with a full stomach from breakfast at the Mammoth Lodge, I wasn’t able to resist stepping away from the car for a short distance - in order to find a place where I could enjoy the morning sun as it clawed its way to the top of the sky. I was in the heart of grizzly country, inside the largest of several protected areas that have been set aside for their continued survival. Here is a place where the bears never learn about guns, and have never been hunted when it’s the sleepy season. I stopped in one of my favorite spots, where you overlook a grassy plain and Garnet Hill, near Tower Junction. When the air is quiet and the wildlife is still, it’s a place where you hear the Yellowstone River while it meanders through the valley, before entering the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone.

I first noticed the female grizzly while she grazed across from me on a grassy bench, and she had two small cubs of the year with her. It was easy to positively identify her as a grizzly bear; the distinguishing features of grizzlies, which include a concave, dished-in face profile, a distinct shoulder hump, and short, rounded ears were all present, she was a classic female grizzly bear. She and her cubs were right in the middle of an area that has been documented as a high predation area of elk by carnivores; you could almost consider it a grocery store for carnivores.

The grizzly sow and her cubs kept moving south-southeast, heading towards an area of sagebrush and deadfall timber. Hanging out nears this sagebrush and deadfall were a small herd of female elk. As the bears approached closer to the herd, all of the cow elk, except for one, began to move away from the bears, towards the southeast, so that they could maintain their distance from the bears. The single remaining elk kept staring towards a small area of deadfall timber; she was looking right at a small, neonate elk calf partially hidden by surrounding sagebrush. For several minutes the cow elk kept looking toward the bears, then toward the calf, and back to the approaching bears. The grizzly sow and her cubs continued ambling closer and closer to the concealed elk calf, and finally, when the bears were within fifty feet of the elk calf, the single cow elk started running at the bears. After closing the distance to fifteen feet from the grizzly sow, the charging cow elk swerved to the east and started running back towards her herd,. The grizzly sow and both cubs watched the elk, but it was as if they didn’t care the least about her, especially since they made no movement towards her.

Unfortunately, when the cow elk bluff-charged the bears, her protective instinct, or behavior, had a detrimental effect, as the small, hidden elk calf moved around just enough to watch her mom, and this was slight movement was enough to cause the brush surrounding her to rustle. The mother grizzly then started to move south again and this is when the young elk calf bolted from cover, moving when the grizzly sow came too close. This caught the bear’s attention and the chase was on.

The elk calf ran from her place of hiding, running alongside a fallen tree and away from the bear. The little elk swerved when she got to the top of the tree and ran northwest before she came across another fallen tree, one that blocked her escape. When the bear came to the top of the tree, she stayed close behind the elk calf, breaking off the top part of the tree and leaving some hairs lodged in a branch still attached to the horizontal tree trunk.

Turning to the west, the elk calf leapt another small fallen tree and kept running, that is, until she had to turn away from yet another tree blocking her flight for life. The grizzly sow also leapt the small deadfall, breaking several thick branches while airborne. The chase turned to the north, and after running the length of a football field, the fleeing elk calf tried to leap another deadfall that was in her way, only to become entangled in the remaining branches. This slowed her enough that the grizzly sow was able to catch up to her, biting into her left rear hindquarter. Using her powerful jaws and front paws, the grizzly sow pulled the elk calf away from the deadfall, out into a clear, grassy area.

With a final bite to the back of the elk calf’s neck, breaking the spine with an audible snap, the chase and a life ended. Once the calf stopped struggling, the grizzly sow carried the carcass off to the northwest, towards the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone, followed closely by both of her cubs.

As the bears left the area, a single cow elk returned to the site where the elk calf had been bedded, sniffing the area. She then followed the path of the chase, stopping to sniff the air several times while approaching the final kill site. At the final kill site, the cow elk sniffed the ground in several places, pawed the ground, looked around and then left the area, returning to her herd, alone.