It's not uncommon to spot a black bear chowing down on some dandelions around Whistler, but rarely are they seen hunting for their meal.
But that’s exactly what Daniel Michael Bunter witnessed while driving through Whistler on his way to work this morning. He shot the footage of a bear chasing, and ultimately catching, a rabbit at a bus stop on Highway 99, near the entrance to a Whistler neighbourhood, just before 10 a.m. yesterday, May 25.
“Initially we saw the bear in the road and slowed down but as we got closer we saw the bear was chasing the rabbit, there was at least 3 more laps before I had my phone ready to record,” he told Pique in a message.
“We didn’t think the bear would get the rabbit as he was so fast but he slipped on the asphalt and the bear pounced. Afterwards the bear ran into the forest I guess to enjoy his breakfast.”
As Sylvia Dolson, executive director of the Get Bear Smart Society explained, it’s not just unusual to see video footage of bears hunting in residential areas, but “rather rare” for a black bear to snag a bunny in the first place.
While grizzlies are known to hunt small mammals more often than black bears, “it’s not often a black bear catches a rabbit,” Dolson wrote in a message after viewing the video, adding that she wondered whether the rabbit was injured already.
“Bears are technically carnivores, even though their diet is mostly plant matter,” she continued. “A nice meal for the bear. Bummer for the rabbit.”
Check out the video below (and turn your sound off if you're not okay with explicit language):
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