Queen of the Tetons

I saw Grizzly 399 on a girls trip out to Jackson Hole when my three boys were very young.  A trip to relax, to hike, to spa, to girl.  But, as much as I needed a break, my boys were constantly on my mind.

We were with a guide named Tenley who was passionately telling us about wolves and their significant importance to the eco system when another guide radioed her that 399 was close by.

A few minutes later, there she was.  Came out of the woods along the hi-way with her three cubs and walked along leisurely in front of our car for a couple hundred yards.  We followed slowly behind, until she stopped and turned to look at us.  She seemed to make a judgment that we weren’t gonna leave her alone - so she ushered those three cubs into the brush by the road.  I thought of my three little guys as Tenley told us the impossible story of being a female grizzly raising cubs.  And I fell hard in love with 399.

For the next 25 years I would go back to Jackson Hole, every year, looking for her.  It wasn’t spring to me until someone reported that 399 came out of hibernation.  It wasn’t the start of winter until we heard that she was safely tucked in somewhere near Signal Mountain, belly full, cuddling her cubs.

The love of her overcame me with every 399 story I heard.  She was in the air to me even though I couldn’t find her.

How many cubs does she have this year?

Have you seen her?

Where did you see her?

We drove for hours, eyes straining, watching for her silvery brown hump in the sage brush.

399, the tag she was given 28 years ago, was a legend in the Greater Yellowstone eco system.  She was the oldest living grizzly still producing off spring ever.  The older she got, the more cubs in her litter.

One of our guides told us that 399 would sometimes meet up with a mature cub of hers, 619, on rare occasions and have a sort of “playgroup” with the cubs.  This is unheard of in the territorial grizzly world.  This particular year was a hard one and the young 619 was having trouble feeding  her two cubs.  On a “playdate” 399 and her two cubs met up with 619 and her two cubs.  When witnessed going their separate ways - 619 left with one cub.  399 took the rest.  I wonder how a grizzly bear says “It’s ok love, I’ve got it.”

I wondered and wondered and wondered about that bear.  399 was a Momma Bear Extraordinaire.

Maybe I fell for her because of the photos of the more than 40 professional photographers who followed her and spread her fame across the world.  The cuddly pictures, the playful ones.  She became everyone’s bear, photographed thousands of times.  She was big enough to share.  But mostly, I loved her because she was fierce.  When we drove away that one day with Tenley - we ran into men working the electrical wires and poles  down the road. Tenley stopped to tell them 399 was just behind us.  I have never seen fear in someone’s eyes like I saw in that electrician’s eyes.  399, after all, was a grizzly bear.

She had over 18 cubs during her life; and fed and taught all those cubs to survive. A grizzly keeps her cubs for about two and a half years and she is solely responsible for them.  Her biggest fear:  male grizzlies who have no problem eating their cubs when they are hungry.  400 pound 399 fighting off 800 pound male grizzly.  Many times.

I am not fierce.   I spend more time thinking about what I wished I had said - than I do saying what I should  have said.  Could I be more like 399 I wondered?  My family would laugh and tell you no.  Tell you about the time I was holding Rory up in my arms waist deep in the Gulf of Mexico because a large crab was crawling by.  After a while, Dillon swam by and pinched my leg.  I tossed Rory into the air, screamed and ran into shore.  I am (pretty?) sure Rory had water wings on.

My beautiful 399 was fatally struck by a car last week.  She came out of the brush by the road at night.  The Subaru that struck her was totaled.  It has been reported that it was not the driver’s fault.  Just a true man-lives-with-wild tragic tale. 399 was so smart.  Years ago she started raising her cubs along the roads in Teton National Park.  Rangers believed that she figured out the male grizzlies would go no where near the roads or people.  People and roads were supposed to be protection for 399.

Two of 399’s cubs were also killed by cars in the past.  One time, the park rangers observed that she carried the dead cub to lay him under a tree - then spent the rest of the night running up and down the hi-way crying.

Last week, with her yearling cub named Spirit, she was once again by a road, protecting her cub.  Maybe chowing down berries before heading to her den for the winter.  Briefly she came, and briefly she taught humans so much about grizzlies.   Briefly she spoke, with her cuddling and playing and foraging - telling us that there is more alike in us than different.

I never saw 399 again in person.  But I feel unbelievably blessed to have seen her once.  I wonder how I will measure spring and fall now.  Still, I believe she will always be in the air to me, even though I can’t see her.

399 - Photo courtesy of one of the best Wyoming guides we know, Chris Irwin. @i.knowaguy