Federal wildlife officials weren’t directly involved in the management of Grizzly 399 until fall 2020, when federal agents investigated a homeowner in Jackson Hole’s Solitude Subdivision for feeding generations of offspring born to the famed grizzly bear. No charges were filed.
By the following year, averting conflicts with Grizzly 399 had evolved into an all-hands-on-deck situation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was going to great lengths to keep the savvy, but sometimes-beleaguered sow grizzly alive. Conflicts with the famous, yet wild resident of Jackson Hole were stacking up as she pursued long walkabouts south of her normal haunts in Grand Teton National Park.
“Because there was so much national interest in her, we put a significant amount of resources in trying to manage the situation,” Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator Hilary Cooley said on Wednesday.
Cooley retold that history while addressing the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee, which met for the first time since a commuter struck and killed the 28-year-old sow in what authorities described as a faultless accident on Oct. 22. She also spoke candidly about navigating the inherent controversy of making decisions about how to handle a conflict-prone animal beloved by people around the world.
“The public scrutiny, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Cooley told members of the subcommittee. “This is probably the biggest challenge of my career.”
“[Grizzly 399] highlighted these difficult management questions that we still need to grapple with,” Cooley said.
Grizzly 399 helped solve some of the management problems herself — at least in Teton County. When the bruin started taking sojourns into southern Jackson Hole four autumns ago with four cubs at her side, there were holes in local zoning regulations that could have spelled real trouble for bears. That’s since changed.
“I know that those efforts to codify food storage ordinances in the county were a result of her,” Cooley said.
Cooley wasn’t the only federal wildlife official to reflect Wednesday on the storied sow grizzly. Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team leader Frank van Manen put the record-breaking female’s history into the context of grizzly bear recovery in the Yellowstone region generally.
“She was born in 1996, and at the time of her birth the population was about little over 500 bears in the ecosystem,” van Manen said. Today, there are an estimated 1,000-plus grizzlies just in the portions of the Yellowstone region where managers keep track. “During the lifespan of a single individual bear, to see that change in the population is pretty remarkable,” he said.
At the time of Grizzly 399’s first capture in 2001, the then-little-known sow lived on the southern edge of grizzly range — the occupied habitat line cut right through the middle of Grand Teton National Park. Today, grizzlies roam the entire park and many of the peripheral mountain ranges in the region.
“She was really kind of at the forefront of range expansion,” van Manen said.
Other lesser-known sows also contributed to the “conservation success.” Those bears, he said, “were just living quiet lives out in more remote places” and their lives may forever remain a mystery.
Grizzly 399, however, gave the public — literally millions of people, over the decades — a rare look into the lives of a large omnivore species that don’t always have it easy living in the modern world.
“To the extent that we can admit [it] as government biologists, she was special,” Teton Park science and resources chief Yvette Converse told her fellow committee members on Wednesday. “She provided a unique glimpse into the lives of wild bears and insight into how bears use the landscape.”
I enjoyed reading this article it’s very interesting. Everybody loves reading about wildlife. We have to be very careful not to make the mistake of letting bleeding hearts take the place of science. The US fish and Wildlife service is being pressured to manage wildlife, especially the grizzly bear, by emotions rather than science. This is a huge mistake. Grizzly bears are at their carrying capacity in many areas and have not been delisted. This is causing many more conflicts with humans. The Bleeding Hearts say: “Well we’re in their home not ours.” I’ve got news for these people. I and others who thrive in the woods, belong there just as much as the grizzly bears do. The federal government will still not allow them to be managed by the states. These populations need to be managed. It would be wise to turn this over to the states, where it belongs. If these conflicts continue to escalate between bears and humans and the federal government does not change their management practices they should be held liable. This means some bears will need to be killed. This is life. Let’s not candy coat it. I have never harvested an animal. I have killed many and used most parts of them but the only things I’ve harvested are vegetables from my garden. Just saying. My two cents!
I’m retired and likely spend more time in the outdoors than people do working.
At one time I was working on a degree and wildlife Management and biology.
However I also needed to make a living for my family.
In the ’70s and ’80s I followed as the wolf population in Minnesota , and studied wolves on Isle Royale The populations grew and grew and has now establish themselves across the western states.
I look at the tremendous recovery of many animals.
Nature has a cruel way of balancing nature.
Just wear the human population can help manage wildlife for all.
Grizzly bears have saturated the Yellowstone ecosystem.
Grizzly bear populations need to be managed.
Saturated grizzly bear habitat increase the danger of humans.
Grizzly bears are extending the range.
Endangering and killing people
Bears need to be managed
Lower the darn speed limit thru the park n make Semis, like those that killed a number of bison, use the alternative route!
Grizzly mama 399 was the canary in the coal mine, shedding light on the miracle that was natural grizzly bear dispersal back into their ancestral lands, GTNP and the GYE.
And 399 also shed light on a decades long delay and urgent need into implement bear safe trash cans and as noted in the article -“Grizzly 399 helped solve some of the management problems herself — at least in Teton County. When the bruin started taking sojourns into southern Jackson Hole four autumns ago with four cubs at her side, there were holes in local zoning regulations that could have spelled real trouble for bears. That’s since changed.”
What the service needs to soul search now is what Tom Mangelsen has stated: “It’s up to us humans to behave, not for authorities to try and “fix” the bears’ long-standing habits” Up to 5 years ago, bears like 399 were never hazed w bullets or cracker shells in the park. What works well are simple things like clapping your hands or honking the horn of your car, hazing doesn’t change the behavior anyway.”
There is an urgent need to buttress up inside the park boundaries the “Wildlife Brigade” a trained (primarily) volunteer group to increase the managing of humans and educate them so more bears are safe from human speeders on the roads & the dire consequences of food availability for bears. But equally as urgent as Tom Mangelsen has observed “… is the need for Highway Patrol to go up regularly on the mountain pass with a radar gun- drivers including big semis & tourists speed there, endangering everyone. Secondly, get a bear ambassador up there to educate the people to stay in their cars when the bears are around, park off the road, etc. They don’t have that. If they had one agency out of the many involved that would take control, w good people skills AND good bear behavior knowledge, that would be helpful”.
There is soo much more that can be done, and the funding is there whether it be from tourism $$$ or federal funding for an employee to become ambassador, but the need begs for building on the lessons which mama 399 and her daughter 610 have taught us before another preventable tragic loss occurs to our bear relations.
Solitude homes run from $2.8M to more than ten times that. So, as suspected, this was caused by someone with far more money than sense who fed wild animals (apparently with impunity?). It’s always worth remembering there is substantial overlap between a smart bear and a stupid human. This tragedy fell right there in the gap.
Kudos to Mike Koshmrl and WyoFile that have done a great job of keeping us informed about a number of wildlife issues many of us would not even be aware of. The popular press has failed miserably, except to venerate the life of this majestic critter. Sadly ,as with so many issues today, protection of our wildlife has become a political issue. Most realize the difficulties wildlife managers face in juggling both the political and economic pressures which are likely to become worse now. Yes there are two sides to the management of wild horses, wolf introductions, and the majestic grizzly to name a few, but it seems that like other ecological/environmental issues they take a back seat to our national self indulgence. We are killing the planet!
Why were there no charges for feeding the bear? Wealthy maybe. Of course.
I’m all for the sentiment expressed here in the article about no. 399 grizzly bear. It’s time American people and the world over realize how valuable our wildlife is and does everything possible to protect all of them. It’s unfortunate Wyoming does not express sentiment about the thousands of horses brutally rounded up in Wyoming and the wolves that are legally run over with snowmobiles as a family sport. Where is any type of sentiment towards that total animal cruelty acts? Wyoming needs to change their policies. We have all watched this cruelty to animals taking place. It needs to stop along with the greed and hate of all involved in abusive actions of the animals. It sickens me.