Bold Yellowstone Coyotes Charge Grizzly That Got Too Close To Their Pup Den
A grizzly bear chased by a pair of coyotesseemed so unlikely, even those watching weren’t sure they believed it. This bear got too close to their den of pups,which motivated them to be aggressive with a predator that could have torn them apart.
When it comes to protective parental instincts in nature, size doesn’t matter, as demonstrated by a pair of Yellowstone coyotes who chased off a grizzly that apparently got too close to their den of pups.
The grizzly, likely a young andinexperienced bear, initially pivoted and tried to chase one of the coyotes that came after it. But when the second coyote came barreling in, the grizzly turned tail==, fled up a hill and didn’t come back.
None of the animals made contact with each other during the brief, dramatic encounter at Blacktail Ponds in Yellowstone National Park.
‘Pretty Ballsy’
It was probably a classic example of coyotes protecting their young, retired wildlife biologist Franz Camenzind told Cowboy State Daily.
Normally, even a pack of coyotes wouldn’t be a match for a healthy adult grizzly. But that didn’t seem to matter to these coyotes when their pups were threatened.
“They’d be aggressive” if their pups were at stake, said Camenzind, who studied coyote behavior in and around the National Elk Refuge near Jackson.
“Normally, they wouldn’t do that (go after a grizzly), but there’s the motivation of protecting young,” he said.
“It’s pretty ballsy of them,” he added.
Wildlife photographer Mark Fletcher took video of the encounter on April 25. He told Cowboy State Daily that he didn’t see any coyote pups.
But he surmised that protecting a den of pups would be the one thing that would prompt coyotes to risk getting torn up by a grizzly.
Camenzind said that tracks with coyote biology and behavior.
Coyote pups are usually born in April, and mated pairs — or even groups of adults — will guard dens, he said.
coyotes chase grizzly Courtesy Mark Fletcher, Mark Fletcher Photography
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/05/04/bold-yellowstone-coyotes-charge-grizzly-that-got-too-close-to-their-pup-den/
https://youtu.be/Sw8a4mZlq98