A black bear took only a few minutes to kill an adult white-tailed deer on the edge of a cliff in Tennessee, right before the eyes of a group of fishermen.
A large black bear eating a deer.
Dustin Tolley and Adam Buckles heard strange noises coming from the shore while fishing at Watauga Lake in Tennessee, near the North Carolina border. They quickly discovered it was a large black bear eating a deer. Tolley’s post on Facebook on July 18 surprised many, as it is rare for bears to hunt large prey like deer, according to Newsweek.
While they typically eat berries, fruits, honey, and sedges for most of the year, black bears are omnivores, meaning they will eat anything when possible. Black bears hunt smaller animals that are easier to attack in the spring, such as deer or caribou, and they also scavenge the remains of prey from other predators like wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, and even hunters.
However, it is very rare to see black bears killing large adult prey like white-tailed deer. According to Buckles, the deer was still alive and struggled to escape for several minutes before being killed. It may have been injured or sick prior to the encounter, but it was not dead when the two fishermen recorded the footage.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) shared the video and noted that 85% of a black bear’s diet consists of vegetables. Attacking and killing large prey, as seen in the video, is very energy-consuming, which means they rarely do so unless there are no easier options available. Black bears have a keen sense of smell and can detect empty food containers, candy wrappers, fast-food bags, and even deodorant in cars, homes, or unsecured trash cans. This becomes an especially significant issue in May and June when their natural berry sources are unavailable.
A black bear eating a white-tailed deer. (Video: Dustin Tolley)
