'It was super nerve-racking': Alberta hunter films grizzly encounter

Logan Hunter was hunting with his father Thursday when they spotted a grizzly bear about a 40-minute drive outside of Whitecourt, on a remote road off Highway 32.

The 19-year-old Whitecourt resident quickly started recording with his phone, and the video he posted had more than 1.5 million views by the next day.

It wasn't your average wildlife recording.

It captured the grizzly as itstarted digging up a black bear's den and encountered a sow and three cubs.

The video shows the sow and two of her cubs escaping.The third cub was not so lucky. Its screams can be heard on the video.

"The grizzly bear there that was digging up the top of the den was definitely very territorial and wasn't going to back off," Hunter told CBC's Radio Active.

"He wasn't even bothered by the fact that we were sitting there. All he was worried about was the other bear that was in his territory, I guess."

According to Hunter's Facebook page, he was sitting in a truck just 10 yards away from the action.

"It was super nerve-racking. Your adrenalinis rushing, you're shaking."

Hunter posted the full video to his YouTube page. Some viewers will find the content disturbing.

"Right at the end, we seen the foot of one of the black bears come up and then he kind of jumped back out and looped around the top of the den, where he dug it out," Hunter said.

"And it's hard to see in the video, but you can see one of the cubs trying to make a run for it right as he jumps into the bushes. And then the mom pops out, and right after the two other cubs pop out and run off, and he had the one cub grabbed on the edge of the treeline."

'Hard to stomach the cries'

Witnessing the event was disturbing, even for a hunter.

"I believe the cub was killed, yes," Hunter said. "There was still screaming when we had left. Mama bear and the other two cubs ran off. We couldn't see them any more and he was in the bushes with the one cub.

"It's an incredible thing to witness something like that in nature, I guess, but hard to stomach the cries from the cub."

Hunter said 90 per cent of the feedback he's received from the video has been positive, but some peoplewanted him to have tried to scare the grizzly off.

Afterward, he and his father were in disbelief.

"We were kind of just didn't believe what we watched, really," he said.

"We headed back home slow."