When it comes to wildlife-related social media sites, Wyoming grizzlies have been the stars of the show so far this spring.
Popular sites, particularly those centered on Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, have been flooded with photos and video clips of bears, particularly sows (female bears) with cubs.
Are there more bears than ever, or just more people following them and taking pictures?
It could be some of both, veteran Wyoming wildlife photographer Jorn Vangoidtsenhoven told Cowboy State Daily.
“In my opinion it's a combination of factors. Wildlife photography has definitely been on the rise since people started getting back to nature more, especially since covid. I don't think there are more grizzly bears necessarily,” he said.
Wildlife photographer Savannah Rose gave a similar assessment.
“I keep a record of my (grizzly) sightings and mine are actually down a bit this year, but mostly they stay about the same. I think there are more people, but most prominently, more interest in grizzly bears and their stories,” she told Cowboy State Daily.
There’s just something about grizzlies that enthralls people, Rose said.
“I can see analytics on my posts and grizzly bears perform the best with my audience, and that seems pretty consistent across the board with everyone,” she said.
“I think humans just have an instinctual pull towards an interest in brown bears- whether you love them or hate them, no one has a neutral reaction to seeing a grizzly,” Rose added.
Highly-visible bears draw crowds and provide plenty of material for social media, wildlife photographer and conservationist Julie Argyle told Cowboy State Daily.
“I think the number of people getting the photos has increased immensely, with a handful of new bears added to the mix. There’s some popular bears out there that everyone wants to see,” she said.
399 Is Gone, But Other Bear Celebrities Remain
Bear fans all over the world were heartbroken when Wyoming’s most famous bear, Grizzly 399, was struck and killed by a vehicle south of Jackson in October 2024.
Though no other bear has yet to reach Grizzly 399’s level of fame, there are still plenty of celebrity grizzlies that people know by name.
“When you look at your Instagram feed or Facebook feed nowadays, it's typically more photographers taking pictures of the same few celebrity bears like 1063, 610, Felicia, Jam, Strawberry, etc.,” Vangoidtsenhoven said.
Grizzly-watching season has only just begun, but there’s already been some drama.
Grizzly 1058, a 5-year-old male and an offspring of Grizzly 399, was struck and killed by a vehicle inside Grand Teton National Park in early May.
Also this month, a boar (male grizzly) apparently killed and cannibalized two of the three yearling cubs of Grizzly 1063, another hugely popular Grand Teton mamma bear.
The third cub was initially reported missing, but 1063’s fans were relieved when that cub rejoined its mother, apparently unharmed.
“The grizzly stories are also often rather dramatic, and this year had a very compelling roller coaster ride with the loss and miraculous recovery of 1063’s cub. So I think that also recruited quite a bit of attention,” Rose said.
Wildlife photographer and Gardiner, Montana resident Deby Dixon has been following the popular Yellowstone bears Raspberry and her two grown cubs, Jam and Snow.
Snow has two cubs, while Jam has attracted a young boar as a “suitor,” Dixon said.
That boar has shown no aggression toward the cubs, she said.
“Snow and her cubs were walking right up to that boar,” she said.
Grizzly 399 was known to take her cubs near roads and other areas crowded with people. It’s thought she did that to protect her cubs from mature male grizzlies, who seem to dislike crowds.
Dixon wonders if other mamma grizzlies are using that same tactic.
“It’s apparently working, because we’re not seeing many boars (near the roads),” she said.
Bears Will Remain Popular
Late spring and early summer are the best time to catch lots of grizzly action near roads and in other highly-visible areas.
Dixon said she spotted at least 15 grizzlies in Yellowstone on Tuesday, “including five at one time.”
Another regular park visitor she spoke with told her that he’d seen 28 bears in one day.
“Yesterday, I wore my arm out shooting bear photos. I went through three batteries and four large camera memory cards,” Dixon said.
Grizzly photos are already popular, and once folks start looking at them, algorithms will keep showing them more, Vangoidtsenhoven said.
“It’s important to remember that just because your feed shows you more pictures, that doesn't mean that there are more bears around. The algorithm definitely skews reality, as it shows more of what you have interacted with. Kind of like during the election if you made a mistake of liking the Democrat or Republican post, your Instagram and Facebook page would be inundated with more of the same party,” he said.
Rose said that she expects grizzly photos to remain wildly popular.
“I try to have a diverse portfolio, so I have a good control group for what does and doesn’t perform well – not that I see animals in that way, they’re all equal to me. But as far as Internet reception goes, the analytics show grizzly images perform significantly better than any other animal,” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
