Brown Bear, Ursus arctos middendorffi, predation on a Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator, nest

Abstract

An adult Brown Bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi) was recorded by timelapse movie camera preying upon a Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) nest on the Copper River Delta, Alaska, in 1989. An adult swan charged the bear and attempted to defend the nest but was unsuccessful. To our knowledge this film is the only photographic documentation of an encounter between Trumpeter Swans and a large mammalian predator.