Adult male grizzlies will kill cubs in what is known as infanticide. There’s not a clear reason as to why an adult male would kill a female’s cubs, but a few plausible theories exist.
Bears are cannibalistic, so there’s a possibility that the male is trying to score an easy meal. It could also be that the male is simply trying to eliminate competition for resources, and a smaller female with young cubs make for easy targets.
The video below shows bears wading around the waters of Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska. The area is a popular feeding grounds for bears during the spring and summer.
The camera doesn’t capture all of the action, but you can see the beginning and the end of a mama grizzly protecting her two young cubs from a much larger male.
Fair warning- the footage is pretty graphic.
Take a look:
You can see the cubs running away towards the end of the video, but it’s unclear if they survived. Let’s hope so!