UTAH — A wildlife camera shows a bear eating a cougar’s stashed food the night after a kill.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources states they are working with Utah State University to study the interactions cougars have at kill sites with other animals.
The agency posted a video with captions showing one such interaction involving a bear, which is embedded in the tweet above.
A cougar wearing a tracking collar killed a deer, so officials set up a camera in the area afterward to monitor the site. A few hours later the cougar returned to the stashed deer carcass to feed again.
The next night a bear came into the same area, found the carcass, and fed on it for about two hours before leaving.
A few hours later the cougar arrived to inspect the area, and about 15 minutes after that the bear returned. Wildlife officials said it’s unclear if the two animals had a direct encounter, but they said it’s likely the cougar gave up control of the deer to the bear.
