Grizzly Bear Feasts on Moose as Couple Exchange Wedding Vows Nearby

A couple recited their wedding vows to each other in Montana's Glacier National Park, but the mood shifted when a grizzly bear attacked and began eating a moose calf nearby.

Stanton Giles, a wedding videographer, captured the graphic moment on camera and posted it to his YouTube channel on August 18 where it was viewed nearly 10,000 times.

"A wedding ceremony was taking place on the shore of Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park, when most of the way through the groom's vows, a grizzly charged out of the brush onto the north shore and attacked a moose calf as the mother looked on," the video description said.

According to the National Park System (NPS), grizzly bears are omnivores and more than 90 percent of their diet consists of grass, berries and insects. What they specifically eat may change with the seasons.

"They will also eat large and small mammals, fruit, bark, roots and mushrooms when they are available," officials with the NPS said.

In the video, the camera focuses on the groom as he recited his vows when a strangled cry could be heard in the distance.

The camera cut to show the bear on top of the moose calf, who kicked its legs to no avail.

"And that's why we didn't go to the north shore, ladies and gentlemen," someone said off camera.

The bear continued to eat the moose as people commented on what they were witnessing. Toward the end of the video, one person wondered if they should relocate the wedding.

Giles said in the video description that they saw the moose and the calf about 10 minutes earlier moving quickly through the forest.

"The bear must have been chasing them for at least a little bit," he said.

Giles wrote to Newsweek that the bear was on the opposite side of the lake. Although they could clearly see what was going on, he said they felt they were in a safe location.

He said that once the groom finished reciting his vows, everyone turned to look for where the loud noises were coming from. The wedding paused while the bear finished killing the moose.

"He was there for just about as long as it took to kill the moose calf," Giles said. "As soon as it died and quit struggling in the water, he dragged it back up into the trees."

He said people were unsure of what to do, though most people wanted to turn on some music to "drown out the sound of death."

"I myself was in shock—couldn't believe what I was seeing," Giles said. "I just sat there and filmed it until they said, 'Let's start the wedding back up again.'"

And, while he wasn't excited to witness a moose getting killed, he said he wasn't upset that he was there.

"To witness something natural like that happen in nature was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, much less while I was shooting at a wedding," Giles said.

Viewers were just as shocked by what unfolded not far from the wedding.

"Crazy you captured this mid-ceremony," a viewer wrote.

"Now the question is how do you incorporate a moose being eaten by a bear in a wedding video," commented another.

"What an omen lol," one viewer wrote.

Giles said he has never experienced something so unexpected while filming a wedding.

"I'm very connected with the rest of the wedding community, and when the news of what happened at my wedding hit, everyone was quick to point out that nothing will ever top it," he said.

Another bear crashed a wedding ceremony, as seen in a TikTok video. The now-viral clip showed a black bear walking through a wedding, knocking over a centerpiece and cutlery in the process.

A man posted a video on YouTube showing a grizzly bear that followed him as he hiked through Yellowstone National Park.

One video, also taken in Yellowstone National Park, featured a grizzly bear stealing another bear's elk.

Updated 08/29/2022, 2:24 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comments from Stanton Giles.