The Legend of 399
The Most Famous Mother Grizzly Bear
in the Yellowstone Ecosystem.
I first saw her in 2021. She was a twenty-five year old mother of four, quads this time. All together, she’d had seventeen cubs including three sets of triplets before the quads (Grizzly 399 Project). They called her by her research number, 399, and she was the most famous mother grizzly bear in the Yellowstone Ecosystem.
399 made history in 2023. At age twenty-seven, she emerged from her den with a single cub making her the oldest grizzly known to have given birth in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. On May 18,
RMNPhotographer photographed 399 and her single cub, Spirit. She was bold, powerful, proud, and protective.
On May 17, 2024,
RMNPhotographer leaves from Estes Park again for Yellowstone and the Tetons. We choose that date because grizzlies with COYs (Cubs of the Year) typically emerge from their dens around the middle of May. So will we see grizzly mothers and their cubs? That is our hope.
The exciting news and something to anticipate…On Sunday, April 21, 399 was spotted having emerged from hibernation for her twenty-eighth year with her yearling cub, Spirit, by her side.
Grizzly bears have long been gone from Colorado, the last one killed in 1979, so to see one in Wyoming is a special experience. I remember that day in 2021 when I told my wife, Carolyn, that to see 399 and her quad cubs would be a lifetime experience.
We had just arrived in the Tetons, driving down from Yellowstone. Just beyond Willow Flats we were crossing the Jackson Lake Dam when I looked across the Snake River. On the opposite side were five large brown spots. I looked again, focusing, making sure my eyes were seeing what I was seeing. Thrilled, the words burst from me. “I think that’s her.”
Quickly, we turned around and headed back to the parking area on the other side of the river. That’s when I knew it was 399 and her quads. There were at least a hundred photographers, cameras mounted on tripods holding 600 mm lenses with 2x multipliers pulling the bears into full frame.
It was raining, and we backed the SUV into a space. We popped the hatch and used it as a giant umbrella. Standing under it, I set up my own tripod as Carolyn sat in the back end. We both stayed fairly dry as my camera began to whirl. For an hour the rain came down, 399 and her four cubs fed on the opposite river bank, and I captured pictures.
As so many other photographers have experienced, that day was special. Not only was I seeing 399 and her cubs, I was seeing the regeneration of grizzly bears in the Yellowstone Eco-System. That day I saw our great effort to share the land with nature’s animals instead of taking them from it, and capture it only as our own. And it was amazing to see.
399 Emerged for Her Twenty-eighth Year
Now, on May 17, 2024, I am heading out with another group of Estes area friends to Yellowstone and the Tetons. Will we get photos of grizzlies? That is the goal, and likely we will capture some images along with black bear. Hopefully, we will photograph some with COYs, those tiny adorable cubs. Along the way there will be bison with their “red dog” babies, scraggly moose losing their winter coat, and elk with fresh hints of velvet antlers. Maybe they’ll even be a gray wolf running over the distant hillside.
And, if we are lucky, when we reach the Tetons there will be 399 and her year old cub. Spirit is said to be a massive, healthy cub, the benefit of being a single cub. Will 399 and Spirit do me the honor of posing for a photograph, allowing me to capture their magnificence?.
As
RMNPhotographer heads for Yellowstone and the Tetons, I have no idea. I do know her return has brought great joy to many who have admired her over her amazing lifetime. To see the legend a third time and appreciate 399’s legacy of motherhood, unequaled by any other bear, would be a privilege.
Whether I am honored a third time or not, 399 is a legend who has given us a warmth in our hearts and bestowed upon many photographers incredible grizzly bear images that before her, they had only dreamed of.
