A nameless bear given a research number launched onto the world stage doing what bears do — having babies and protecting them.
Award-winning journalist and author Todd Wilkinson spoke on Cowboy State Daily’s Morning Show with Jake Nichols on Thursday (see video below) about how Grizzly 399, the 28-year-old mother of 18 known cubs, captured the public’s attention over the years.
The most popular bear momma in the world was killed Tuesday night when she was hit by a car on Highway 216/89 in Lincoln County. The local sheriff’s office has deemed the incident an accident and didn’t ticket the driver.
It first involved having triplets and raising three cubs by Grand Teton National Park and Bridger-Teton National Forest roads, and in 2006 and 2007 allowing the public — and eager photographers — a glimpse of her.
But the rest of the story might never have happened without a key decision by wildlife officials and the advocacy of a bite victim in summer 2007.
It involved a schoolteacher from Lander who had been attending a conference at Jackson Lake Lodge and had walked on Wagon Road below corrals and surprised Grizzly 399, who was feeding on an elk carcass with her three clubs. Trails around the lodge had been closed because of grizzly activity.
“She gave him a bite in the rump,” Wilkinson said, and then the cubs gave him a bite in the rump. “He pleaded with rangers not to kill the bear because she had done nothing wrong.”
An article in the Casper Star-Tribune on June 14, 2007, quoted Dennis VanDenbos as stating that he had jumped into a ditch face down to play dead when he saw that 399 was going to charge. A wrangler from nearby corrals yelled and then VanDenbos started yelling. The bears left.
‘I Don’t Hold Any Grudge’
“There was not much else for the bear to do not knowing my intentions,” VanDenbos was quoted from a hospital bed at the time. “I don’t hold any grudge against this bear. She’s a gal with three cubs trying to keep them fed.”
Wilkinson said the National Park Service’s decision not to relocate or kill the bear was crucial to her rise to become a mega-celebrity bear.
In addition to being a journalist for publications such as National Geographic magazine, Wilkinson is the author of “Grizzly 399: The World’s Most Famous Mother Bear,” which features photographs of noted wildlife photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen, who first photographed the bear in 2006.
Wilkinson said his first encounter with 399 happened in 2005 when he asked the head of a grizzly bear study team about being able to follow a bear. They were both in Grand Teton National Park at the time. The researcher had the coordinates of a place where a grizzly had laid down.
Wilkinson laid down in the same spot as the bear had and tried to look up at the sky and world from the grizzly’s perspective.
“I said, ‘Who was here?’ And he said, ‘We call her 399, this research bear,’” Wilkinson said.
Social Media Queen
Wilkinson said 399’s decision to raise her cubs along the roadways and territory around Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole likely stemmed from the death of her first cub by a male grizzly in the backcountry.
Her temperament allowed her to be near people and learn how to navigate crossing roads and living near public spaces helped boost her celebrity profile. It also helped keep her cubs safer from predatory male bears.
“The person who really brought 399 to life was Tom Mangelsen, but Tom in conjunction with a long list of people,” Wilkinson said. “Local people in Jackson who became more than watchers but passionate defenders, trailing her along the roadside and trying to advocate for her. And then her life coincided with the social media age which created this viral nature of spreading information.”
Wilkinson said the what amazes him is how the life of 399 was lived out “month-by-month” and “year-by-year” and was something that never could have been planned. Each year, researchers, journalists and the public waited for 399 to emerge from her den. And for the past 18 years they have been rewarded with greater understanding about the grizzly species and its value.
Dubbed the “Queen of the Tetons,” Grizzly 399 also became the queen of social media for wildlife. Any photo, video or anecdote about the famous bear exploded on various platforms.
One of those is the Wyoming Through the Lens Facebook group and its more than 317,000 members.
399 was probably the most poplar subject with the group, both to post photos and videos of and just to follow, said Lorri Lang, who administers the group.
“I don’t think there’s been any bear that’s been more popular than 399, especially when she had the three cubs,” Lang told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday. “She’s definitely going to be missed, not only just at Wyoming Through the Lens, but worldwide.”
Since news of 399’s death began spreading, “it’s just dominated the whole thing,” Lang said. “She’s dominated Wyoming Through the Lens not only in her death, but through the years.”
As to why she became so popular, Lang has a theory.
“I think people love that she was such a good mom,” she said. “Just watching her taking care of her babies and stuff, and at her age to have babies. I think a lot of it was because she was just such a good momma bear.”
Now people watch 399’s offspring, like Grizzly 610, raise their own cubs, she said.
“I cried when I heard that she had died,” Lang said. “She was a legacy, she really was. There won’t ever be another 399.”
‘Cautionary Tale’
His own writings about 399 have been about building empathy for her, but he said considering bears in human terms or as anything other than the species of carnivore they are does them a disservice.
The legacy of 399 is not just about seeing a mother raise her cubs, but also a “cautionary tale” about the interaction between the human world and habitat for bears, Wilkinson said. He said 399’s death came on a road and some of her cubs have also died as a result of “run-ins” with humans.
While the bear population has grown substantially in Wyoming’s northwest, adding to the economic draw of the region and to the field of study involving large carnivores, the dangers for bears have also grown with expanded housing and human development into bear habitat.
“Her legacy is that she allowed us in her space and the challenge for us is making space for her and the other grizzlies of the world,” Wilkinson said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
