VIDEO: Grizzly Bear With Cubs Attacks Eagle Nest For Eggs

How far would you go for a snack? What if it was something really good, like a warm, gooey eagle egg? Yum yum?

Well, if you're this Alaska mama grizzly with cubs, you're willing to weather a whole lot of pecking and swooping. But she's a busy mom, and she's got kids to feed. 

The video shows the other side of a more commonly photographed event, namely when an eagle snatches a baby mammal and flies off with it, probably to feed her young. This time, the mammal's got the upper hand. It is, to borrow a phrase from Disney, the circle of life. 

To be fair, it is unclear from the video whether the bear or her cubs were able to find anything to eat in the nest or not. But the eagles are pretty agitated regardless, repeatedly swooping at the head and face of the mother grizzly. The cubs, you will notice, eye the eagle with concern -- the eagle might even be big enough, or the cubs small enough, to carry one away herself...

But the bear wins the day, whether it gets lunch or not. The mama grizzly and her cubs, having had enough of reenacting Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," retreat back up the mountain.

All in all it is one of the most compelling nature videos we've ever seen because, as the videographer writes, "the picture every photographer wants to get in Alaska is a bear and an eagle...well, we managed to get an entire battle on camera between the two."

Are you Team Bear or Team Eagle?  

See the whole riveting video below:

Also, we hate to say it, but the whole event bears at least some resemblance to a scene in the partially Montana-shot Lewis and Clark spoof "Almost Heroes", starring the late, great Chris Farley, himself at least somewhat bear-like.  In this scene, Farley's William Clark stand-in, Bartholomew Hunt, must retrieve an eagle egg from a nest high on a cliff, but also has a love for breakfast food.  

The film was lauded for its historical accuracy upon release.  Ok, not quite.  But enjoy the scene: