You get engaged, you plan a beautiful mountainous wedding at Glacier, your extended family flies in from around the country, and the big moment is here… you’re about to say your vows. As you’re about to shed your first tear staring into your partner’s eyes, you notice the crowd starts to rustle and look away from the ceremony. Across the placid lake, a 500-pound grizzly bear is mauling a full-grown moose thrashing in the shallow water. The moose is still kicking and calling out as the bear viciously puts it to sleep. Such was the case when this lovely couple tried to get married. Let’s get some context concerning what was happening in this video before we take a look.
The Wildlife of Glacier National Park
Glacier is one of the most sought-after travel destinations in the United States. It’s home to a diversity of rugged wildlife, difficult hiking trails, glacial lakes, and a gauntlet of pristine mountains. The park includes just about everything that a visitor would want to see in all of the other National Parks of the United States. Unless you’re looking for an ocean shoreline, Glacier National Park probably has what you’re looking for. One of the primary draws for the park, however, is a population of a few hundred grizzly bears. If you visit at the right time of year, Glacier is arguably the place in the United States where you’re most likely to see a wild grizzly bear. The odds of being attacked by a grizzly are extraordinarily small. Still, attacks do happen and there’s usually very little between you and these animals if you encounter them on a trail. That’s part of the thrill that Glacier offers, and it also means that situations like the ones in this video can occur. Apex predators like grizzlies also need a healthy ecosystem of flora and fauna in order to survive. There are large populations of moose, elk, wolves, mountain goats, and even a few scattered Mountain Lions within the park. Visitors almost always have the chance to encounter some form of wildlife that they might not normally see in their daily lives. That even goes for visitors that have their weddings in the park.
How Come The Grizzly Bear is So Close to The Ceremony?
Glacier hosts numerous locations suitable for a wedding ceremony. Many people get married there every year. Even though there are one or two high-end hotels nearby where these events take place, the locations are still stamped in the midst of the wilderness. In other words, the wedding takes place in Grizzly Country so there’s nothing preventing, say, two of North America’s largest land mammals from mauling each other to the melody of your wedding processional tune. The people in this video weren’t likely in any danger, however. Grizzly bears tend to avoid groups of more than one or two people, and the interaction in the video below took place on the other side of a lake. In any case, this is certainly something that nobody at this ceremony will ever forget.
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