Getting video of a grizzly mother and cub fighting over food, practically within arm’s reach, seemed cool enough to share on social media for a Cody man, but he didn’t expect it to catch fire.
“It was funny. It was just a typical day at work for me. I had no idea it was going to blow up like that,” Ryan Aune told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday afternoon.
It’s easy to see why it did. From inside the cab of his truck, Aune had his camera running when the sow and cub burst through the underbrush next to the road, each with their jaws clamped tight on some sort of carcass. They were fighting over control of the food even while on the move. Another cub runs alongside them.
Both bears are vocalizing while trying to get the meat from the other, an example that while grizzly mommas take good care of their cubs, they don’t always share. And it’s a lesson for the cub that as an apex predator, it takes what it needs.
The video, which he posted Wednesday, already had more than 1.2 million views on Facebook by Thursday afternoon.
“That’s what it’s like living in Wyoming. What you think is normal is insane to other people,” said Aune, who owns Wyoming Wings & Waters guide service.
Reaction to the video has been mostly positive, although there have been some peanut gallery comments, he said.
“Somebody commented something like, ‘Great filming, said no one, ever.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Sure, you try being right next to grizzlies fighting and not flinch,” Aune said.
He took the video at 5:50 a.m. Wednesday alongside the highway between Cub Creek and Lake Butte in Yellowstone National Park, as he was on his way to meet a fishing client.
It wasn’t his first close encounter with grizzlies. In 2019, Aune shot and killed a grizzly with birdshot from just a few feet away when it charged him near the Clarks Fork River.
Wildlife agents investigated the shooting and cleared it as a case legitimate self-defense, but Aune said the experience still made him sad.
‘I Could Feel Every Little Bit Of It’
Aune frequently drives into Yellowstone through the East Gate early in morning, so he’s used to seeing grizzlies and other wildlife along the way.
When he spotted some grizzlies coming out of the cover right next to the highway, he decided it was worth pulling over and maybe get some video.
“It was like, ‘Oh, there’s bears, it looks like they’re playing. No, wait, they’re fighting over something,’” he said.
By time he his rig pulled over and he rolled down his window to shoot video on his smartphone, the grizzlies had retreated into the trees and brush. But he started recording anyway, just in case.
“All of the sudden, there comes momma grizzly out of the trees, straight at me,” Aune said.
And the cubs were right with her. One cub just seemed to be following along.
The other was tussling violently with its mother over a scrap of food.
Exactly what it was they were fighting over, Aune isn’t sure.
“I think it was a marmot, but I’m not sure. I was more focused on safety at that point,” he said.
The mother grizzly and cub didn’t appear to be trying to hurt each other, but each was tugging mightily at the tasty treat, not wanting the other to get it.
They were growling and huffing ferociously.
The trio of bears was maybe 15 feet away from his open window.
“I could feel the sound in my body. I could feel every bit of it,” Aune said.
The bears were completely caught up in what they were doing and didn’t seem to notice Aune or his truck.
“I’ve got a 2022 F-350, which is very noticeable,” he said.
After a few seconds of mighty struggle, the video ends with the cub claiming the prize and running back into the cover, with its mother and sibling close behind.
After viewing the video, Wyoming Game and Fish Large Carnivore Specialist Dan Thompson said it appeared to be a typical case of grizzlies struggling over who got the last bite.
But whether the cub ultimately prevailed remains unknown, he told Cowboy State Daily.
“It looks to me like they're having a tussle over the last scrap of food at the table, and junior won ... for now,” he said.
Hunting and fishing guide Ryan Aune of Cody shot and killed this grizzly bear when it charged him near the Clark’s Fork River in 2019. Investigators deemed the shooting justified self-defense, but Aune said killing the bear saddened him. (Courtesy Ryan Aune, Wyoming Wings and Waters Guide Service) 
Hunting and fishing guide Ryan Aune of Cody shot and killed this grizzly bear when it charged him near the Clark’s Fork River in 2019. Investigators deemed the shooting justified self-defense, but Aune said killing the bear saddened him. (Courtesy Ryan Aune, Wyoming Wings and Waters Guide Service)
2019 Encounter Ending In Shooting
Aune said that Wednesday’s encounter gave him “flashbacks” to nearly being mauled in 2019.
He and his father were bird hunting along the Clarks Fork River one November day.
“We had just gotten finished burying a great bird dog, and we were just trying to make a bummer of a day into a good day by going hunting in that dog’s honor,” he said.
Aune was in what he described as a “tunnel of trees” near the river when he heard his father yell, “grizzly!”
He heard some thrashing, and a grizzly cub appeared out of the cover in front of him. He shouted at it, and the cub turned to run toward the river.
“I turned to my left, and there was momma grizzly not about 10 feet from me,” he said. “I had nowhere to go, and I just started shooting.”
His semiautomatic Berretta 12-gauge was loaded with No. 6 birdshot. Those are small pellets made to knock upland gamebirds out of the air, not to take down angry grizzlies.
But at near point-blank range, the pattern was so bunched up that each blast hit almost like single projectile.
The bear was standing when Aune opened fire, and the first two shots hit it in the upper chest and neck area.
The bear dropped to all fours and tried to charge, but the third blast “went right through the skull” and instantly killed it, Aune said.
He left the bear’s carcass and the empty shotgun shell hulls right where they fell so game agents could investigate the scene.
It’s illegal to shoot a grizzly in the Lower 48, unless it’s in self-defense. Investigators must be called to the scene as soon as possible.
Though he was cleared of any wrongdoing, and the bear appeared to have already been in poor bodily condition, Aune said killing the grizzly weighed heavily on him.
He was particularly saddened by orphaning the cub.
“It took me a while to get over that,” he said.
He hopes that any future encounters with grizzlies will involve photos and video, not gunfire.
“I don’t wish that feeling on anyone. What you feel like when you have to kill something to save your own life,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
