Touching Video Captured 'Surprising' Reunion Between Bear Sisters

While it is common for bear cubs to play with one another, it is less likely that the two cubs playing together are cousins.

A now-viral video shared by @exploreorg on TikTok on August 18 captured several clips showing a rare reunion between two brown bear sisters and the playtime their cubs shared with each other in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve.

"It's not often that we see bear families reunite like this," read the caption of the video, which was viewed nearly 700,000 times.

Katmai National Park is home to about 2,200 brown bears.

The national park partnered with explore.org, which livestreams videos showing bears throughout the premises. The omnivores are most often seen at Brooks River from late June through late July and early September through mid-October.

Officials with the park said cubs typically stay with their mothers for about two-and-a-half years.

"Katmai's bears generally separate from their cubs in May or June of a cub's third summer," officials said. "The female probably uses threats or aggression to cause the young to disperse. Some females, however, will keep their cups through a third summer before pushing them away the next spring."

The Viral Video

At the start of the video, two bear cubs are seen playing with each other.

"This month on bear cam, we witnessed a surprising reunion," read the text over another clip in the video that showed four bears standing together. "Sisters 909 and 910 greeted each other in the river, and their own cubs met for the first time."

A clip that was taken from footage in 2016 showed 909 and 910 sitting together with their mother, Beadnose who has not been sighted in about four years.

"This week, sisters 909 and 910 fished next to each other in a spot their mom Beadnose was known to frequent as their cubs watch and wait and learn together," read the text over a clip that showed the two bears. "A family legacy that lives on."

TikTokers React

TikTok viewers shared their appreciation for the sweet montage in the comments section.

"I honestly believe they don't forget one another," a viewer wrote.

"Well now I'm sobbing on a random Thursday afternoon," commented another. "To see 909 and 910 as cubs [with] Beadnose & now reunited as moms without her. I hope they stay safe.

The Reunion Continues

The family continued to spend time with each other and the cousins have bonded, as seen in other follow-up videos, even though officials initially thought the reunion would be short.

"They first met at the beginning of the summer when their moms 910 and 909 reunited in an encounter we thought would be brief," read the text over a video posted on Friday. "Rangers were surprised: extended families do not spend time together, but the Beadette family continued to hang."

Another clip showed the two sisters playing together in a grassy patch of land. The video noted that this was an event that has never been seen in the 10 years the bear cam was installed.

Officials with the national park's natural resource team told Newsweek in an email that siblings playing together is not uncommon, even after they are "emancipated."

"We regularly see siblings spending significant time together as subadults and playing occasionally as adults," officials said. "That said, this was a very unique situation in that two sows (909 and 910) with cubs play with each other while the cubs played together."

Other Bears Caught on Video

This is not the first time bears have been caught on camera.

A video in July showed a black bear playing with a soccer ball in a California yard before climbing up a tree, while another clip that month showed a black bear that rang a woman's doorbell.

In addition, one clip showed a bear stealing pizza from two men last week.

Update 09/19/2022 11:45 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a statement from the Katmai National Park and Preserve.