A brown bear at the Alaska Zoo attacked a smaller bear in a shared enclosure Saturday in the kind of violent wildlife encounter that’s normally reserved for the Alaskan wilderness.
This one unfolded in front of the public as visitors including children looked on. It also became the subject of a hard-to-watch video that had attracted 741,000 views on TikTok as of Monday afternoon.
The larger of two bears can be seen biting hard and clamping down on the smaller bear’s back repeatedly, tearing its skin and fur. The smaller bear does not appear to fight back. A third bear looks on at times but doesn’t get involved.
One observer said the attack seemed to last for as long as 30 minutes. The video shows a zookeeper administering pepper spray. The cloud hits both bears and they separate.
The smaller bear received “moderate” injuries but is expected to survive and is receiving veterinary care, the Alaska Zoo said in a statement Monday. The brown bear exhibit is temporarily closed to the public.
The smaller bear was a brown bear that was seized from a wildlife center near Haines last year and taken to the zoo, according to a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The biologist identified the larger bear as Izzy, a brown bear that came to the zoo years ago as an orphaned cub from King Cove.
The third bear is Oreo, a longtime zoo resident that once shared a pen with Ahpun the polar bear.
The zoo has kept brown bears for 57 years and never experienced this kind of attack, according to the zoo statement.
“It’s a hard thing to witness when you are a visitor at the zoo,” Alaska Zoo spokesperson Katie Larson said Monday. “This is not something that has ever occurred at the zoo before.”
The larger bear has lived with other bears for years without incident, according to zoo officials.
The zoo statement described the attack as an “abrupt altercation” that occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday. Visitors alerted staff who responded immediately and “implemented established protocols to safely separate the bears,” officials said. The animals are being housed separately as officials evaluate next steps.
“We care deeply for the animals entrusted to us, and this incident has been difficult for our team,” the zoo said in its statement, adding that the well-being of the bears remains the highest priority. “We recognize that this was upsetting for those who witnessed it, and we share those feelings.”
Zoo officials declined to answer questions or identify the bears involved when asked Monday.
The videos don’t show the entire episode, which had a bloody end, according to a person who said they filmed the attack while a friend reported it to an employee. They said they were furious that zoo employees didn’t do more to stop the encounter sooner.
Other visitors who witnessed the attack, however, credited zoo staff for breaking up the fight and saving the smaller bear.
It’s not unusual for wild brown bears to fight each other, occasionally to the death. Bears fight over resources like food. A sow may strike out at another bear getting too close to her cubs, biologists say. Males get aggressive during mating season.
In this case, the bear that came from the Haines wildlife center had not been around other bears before coming to the zoo last year, according to Stephanie Samaniego, a wildlife biologist with Fish and Game.
The bear was held separately at first and responded well to that setting before being integrated into the main bear habitat in September, Samaniego said.
The zoo responded “promptly and appropriately” to the attack, she said. “There’s always risks when you try to incorporate … animals with other animals. But they had been doing well together since September 2025.”
The two bears will not be housed together again, Samaniego said, but no decisions have been made as to whether the smaller female will be moved from the zoo.
Steve Kroschel, the owner of the Haines wildlife center where the smaller bear originated, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.