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You guys see where Grizzly 399 was hit and killed by a vehicle. She raised a ton of cubs over the years.
Shane
Does that make her a hero or a villain around here??
She sure did her part for getting them off The List… Now if the humans could just keep up….
I just watched a "Nature" program on her a couple months ago... She hung around one road a lot and some of her cubs were road killed through the years... One year she had 5 cubs... Seen a recent internet article were she only had one cub this year, so she was well past her prime... Do you know if that cub survived the vehicle? Probably won't matter, it was a first year cub and likely won't survive on it's own...
An inglorious end to an amazing creature
She had 18 cubs and raised 8 to adulthood. She also was a menace in town to some but sad to see her hit by a car. Not going to mourn any grizz in Wyoming, sorry.
I am so heartbroken. She was such a nice creature. There will likely never be another like her.
Is there a “GoFundMe” page to help out the vehicle’s owner with repair costs?
Dang, my wife will be sad. She has a shirt we bought out there with her silhouette and name on it! Sounded like a pretty cool animal.
BB had a nice tribute to 399 on his FB page
I might be different and I photograph some animals that have become "famous", I occasionally call them by the name they are giving. I can't exactly explain why but it rubs me the wrong way when people start treating an elk, deer, bear or whatever as a celebrity. I love photographing and hunting big animals but putting them on pedestal making them more than they actually are doesn't sit right with me. There a lot of people including some photographers I know and respect that are mourning this bears death as it is human. I find it silly and possible dangerous to the future of hunting. A bear that happened to hang out where a lot of people see it, died. Nothing more nothing less. With that said I wish I would have gotten some pictures of it, especially with some young cubs.
I tend to agree John... When I see an article of say a big racked buck and when it comes to the part of "ole xxx" it turns me off (and I really don't know why) but I'm done with the article and hearing about xxx and his cutesy name... Just something about it I don't care about and really can't explain it,,, although I haven't a problem them naming "399" but only because it's scientific number.... I know quirky huh, but that's the way my brain operates...8^)
After the big elk named Sampson that was poached in Estes Park many years ago, the Sampson Law was implemented.
Not all bad things happen when a popular wild animal dies.
I wished it happened long ago. Sadly she is likely one of the reason why delisting has not happened. She was forced into conflict with man. Lack of habitat due to too many bears forced her to constantly live on the fringe. Every time I saw her she was dealing with traffic, eating garbage, working around crowds, being hazed by rangers, etc. Sadly she chose the life around man in order to avoid having her cubs killed by boars in the wild. It never felt natural when I saw her and she neve acted like bear. She never lived a wildlife etc.
Good or bad thing? I know I prefer my wildlife to live a wild life... Her popularity and celeberity status is no doubt a bad thing for sensible, science based management.
I guess my point is it's not so much the name that bothers me. Because I use them too at times, be it a well know elk around Estes Park or 130 inch Whitetail in one of my hunting spots. It is an efficient way of knowing what animal you're talking about. It is the humanization of them that bugs me the most. Imagine if there was a well-known mountain lion in Colorado and some hunter legally killed it, what that would do for the banning of hunting mountain lions on the ballot? What if Wyoming or Montana eventually get a grizzly bear season. When somebody kills one of the "famous" grizzlies that has roamed outside the park, it's going to be a shit show because all these bleeding hearts have attached extra value to it.
John, I just call them big 5x5, 6x6, 5x6 with left sticker, etc...8^) I did call one a few years back "FreakRack"...8^)
But yeah, I understand what you're saying about turning them into celebrities in the public's eye... Let's not forget about Cicel the lion...
Yeah IdyllwildArcher, it must have been in 2022 because I think the film was produced in 2023 and aired a couple months ago, lookup: "NATURE: Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons"
I think she had 5 to begin with and lost one early and raised 4 through the summer but can't remember for sure, and then I seen online she had only one young cub this year...
Was just looking it up, maybe she had only 4 cubs a couple years ago according to this link:
https://apnews.com/article/famous-grizzly-399-killed-grand-teton-wyoming-3e13c4b5234926cbd799dbb3db1ffac8
Sorry, my memory is not what it used to be...8^)
I agree with JohnMC and I am not sure how to feel about this bear. I read more and more every year about hunters getting mauled by griz. I am ok with them there but I would also be ok if they were not. I used to love seeing them but after a dozen or so it lost it's glory.
I do not mourn for it or feel bad. I wish it died of natural causes.
When you are from "other" how would you know.
It should have died by an arrow or bullet imo.
Johnmc is spot on!
Agree with John. Too much love for a wild animal. Wouldn't suprise me to find out the driver of the vehicle is getting heat from those that treated this grizzly like a hero.
Cowboy state daily quoted someone thinking the cub would survive as it was 1-1/2 and very large. Grizzlies acclimated to humans not good.
Save a bow hunter kill a bear!!!
This is how ridiculous people are, it a F'ing bear. Of course the gal that posted uses pronouns.
Agreed John. This type of stuff is why they won’t be hunted until they start eating people in urban centers.
I’m with John. There is a group page on Facebook called Teton National Park. The people on there are attacking the driver who accidentally hit the bear while humanizing her and her cub. The humanizing makes me shake my head. One woman from California suggested that the bear knew she had reached the end of her life and so walked out in front of the car on purpose. What!
If that bear wasn’t so comfortable around roads and civilization it might still be alive. Nevertheless a sad story. Although she did live 28 healthy years.
I bet a hundred bucks I can guess who those kinda people vote for on November 5th. Those people don’t realize if your liberal or conservative Grizzly’s don’t mind attacking either one.
Shane
As an old bowhunter who laid down his bow in favor of my camera to do my shooting I understand what some of you say and although I disagree with some of your thoughts I won't go into that.
I totally enjoyed my time with 399 and received much satisfaction in trying to find her, seeing her and on occasions being able to photograph her. I felt bad when I heard she had been hit by a vehicle. And I personally will miss the chance of seeing her again and have lost the hope of getting another photograph of her.
Over 50 years of bowhunting taught me a lot of that has helped me get many of the photographs I am able to get nowadays. And such was the case with 399.
The photograph of 399 in the snow with her four cubs following behind was a prime example of how what I learned from bowhunting, got me that photo. I saw her at a far distance heading up a steep mountain, in deep snow. I told my wife she was heading to go hibernate and that if we went to the other side of the mountain and waited we might see her. So we did that and we waited and waited and waited. After four hours of waiting my wife looked at me and started to say, "Bill this is dumb, we are not going to see her!" But in the middle of that sentence and before she had finished it, she said, "There she is!" I took the photo of her and her four cubs as she headed past us. Bowhunting taught me that patience and persistence pays BIG dividends. And such was the case on that cold Dec. 28th day of 2020.
Have a great bow hunt. BB
Hard to argue with Bill. You coming to CO to photograph the deer this month?
Bill, thanks for posting your pictures and story.
Such amazing creatures, great photos Bill!
Great pictures Bill thanks so much for sharing good luck Lewis
Great pictures Bill thanks so much for sharing good luck Lewis
I'm with JohnMC. I could not believe they actually spread (or buried) that bears ashes somewhere she "loved"! Bears are not people! Bears don't "love" anything except the food they eat!
A funeral for a road-killled bear? That is just Flat Out F@$#%!€> Up.
And there’s something perverse about scattering ashes in the human-habituated are which killed her. Maybe she wouldn’t have lived so long or been so productive if she’d been out there scratching for grubs like an actual bear, but I am with WYOelker. Wild animals are supposed to be wild. Not semi-domesticated livestock or pets…
BB is back... Nice photos Bill...
Have you ever seen me advocate for baiting ANY animal? I’m not a fan of good plots, either, because of the way that they artificially boost carrying capacity and habituate animals to human presence, but you probably do know that, as well.
What I know is that a memorial service for any animal (save perhaps as a stand-in for the last of its kind) is as far removed from a science-minded world-view as it gets.
If you have an interest in managing wildlife, you have to accept individuals as interchangeable parts; some may, in fact, have intrinsically higher value to their species than others, but that’s for NATURAL selection to sort out. When humans do the selecting, you tend to get things like tuskless elephants, and silent Elk… Just saying.
Grizzlies have done extremely well under existing protections, and it’s getting really close to being time for at least some of those protections to be removed. I don’t pretend to be close enough to that situation to make the call on which ones or when, but with consistently escalating conflicts between grizzlies and humans, the writing is on the wall. Stuff like holding a memorial service for an individual — simply because she was highly visible — and apparently well-fed — is entirely contrary to making an informed and rational decision about Whether/When and How the states which have stable and expanding populations of grizzlies should go about moderating the protections on those bears.
I am Pro Management of all species, from whitetails to feral cats to wolves, lions, grizzlies, and whales. I am opposed to Deer Farming, and remain so whether you want to put it behind a high fence and/or call it QDM or not; it’s still Farming. Maybe Ranching on a good day.
The dentist who shot “Cecil” got flamed not for killing a biologically /genetically significant individual, but for killing a public Pet. Likewise the jackass who poached Samson. The difference is that the latter clearly knew what he was doing, and the former presumably did not, though his guide surely must have. But both shaped Law…. ONLY because people were outraged by the killing of animals which had clearly lost their essential Wildness, and were just facsimiles of what a Herd Bull or a dominant male lion should be.
A lot of “hunters” would gladly pay to shoot the blue-ribbon steer from the County Fair if P&Y had a minimum score for them. Others are happy with the first legal deer that comes by, because they know there’s very little chance that they’ll see a second until next year. I’m more aligned with the latter.
So I may not Know All, but I know what matters in scientific management and I know what matters to me as a hunter. And I know that a Celebration Of Life for a bear is pretty screwed up. It doesn’t surprise me, coming from a bunch of PETA types, but it’s still screwed up, snd shockingly so, coming from local government…,
Thanks for posting BB! When I saw your pics on FB I knew you had a special photography connection with 399
BB I see your pictures all over Facebook and think about you. Been wondering what you’re up to.
Nick that sums up my point above perfectly.
Figured you'd like that... I grew up with that fella, wish he was a bit more informed.
I knew I seen something about a Yellowstone grizzly sow having 5 cubs but I guess it wasn't #399, but here is an article:
"Jul 3, 2024
Two weeks ago, Yellowstone National Park made headlines when a mother grizzly bear was spotted out and about with five cubs in tow — the biggest grizzly bear cub litter ever seen in the park"
https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/yellowstone-national-park-grizzly-bear-cubs?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter
See, I'm not totally delusional, at least not yet...8^)
Unfortunate, but there are worse ways to go. At least it didn't have to suffer the indignity of being kidnapped, drug away in chains and executed by jack-booted, liberal- government thugs like Peanut the Squirrel! Just kidding, ya'll don't get your panties in a wad!
...or starved to death by FEMA because it's owner might have taken Peanut's pic with a MAGA cap on its furry little head. Okay this one slipped out, I will do voluntary penance in the "non-typical" timeout" corner!
