In a rare turn of events, a mountain goat in Canada managed to kill an attacking grizzly bear with their dagger-like horns.
Parks Canada said that the recent forensic necropsy report of a female grizzly bear suggested that she was killed by a goat.
They believe that the goat managed to pierce the armpits and neck of the bear.
David Laskin, a Parks Canada wildlife Ecologist with the Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit, said:
When grizzly bears attack, they tend to focus on the head, the back of the neck and the shoulders of the prey. This attack usually comes from above. The defensive response of a mountain goat would be to protect itself using its sharp horns.
The remains of the bear, which only weighed around 70 kilograms, is not believed to have had any cubs.
The bear was discovered on September 4, 2021, by a hiker, close to the Burgess Pass trail near Field, British Columbia.
The carcass of the bear was airlifted out of the area.
The authorities they had to bring it somewhere else because other predators could be attracted to the carcass.
Mountain goats can weight up to 125 kilograms and their horns can reach the lengths of nearly around 12 inches.
Talking about the bear and mountain goat rivalry, Laskin said:
Grizzly bear predation on mountain goats is relatively common. But this is the first case my colleague and I have ever seen. Bears put themselves at risk when predating on large ungulates like moose, and elk … And there’s been other cases of mountain goats defensively killing bears that have been reported in the past, but rarely do you find anythingdocumented like this. This has definitely been interesting – and a reminder that nature is full of surprises.
Nature is pretty wild, right?
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