- 2 days ago
Bears face significant threats from habitat loss, climate change, and poaching, necessitating protection for both the species and their ecosystems.
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00:13Bear watchers are gathering early this year
00:16in anticipation of Grizzly 399's emergence from the den.
00:20She's coming, she's coming.
00:21She's off the charts famous.
00:23There they are, right there, right there.
00:25Grizzly Bear 399, she's known as the matriarch or the queen.
00:29In Grand Teton National Park.
00:31Since I started photographing 399, it's been 15 years.
00:36But her fame makes everything more complicated.
00:39As a bear biologist, we just kind of go, ugh.
00:42Bears that get close to people lose their normal avoidance or fear response.
00:47This is good in a way because it allows them to live in places where there are people,
00:52but it also is risky.
00:54There's just so many things that can go wrong once they get out of the park.
00:56That behavior outside of a national park, in the town, is not tolerated.
01:02That bear is usually euthanized.
01:05399 and the Cubs were escorted by police through downtown Jackson.
01:09Does she get special treatment?
01:12100%.
01:12Yeah.
01:13100%.
01:14She gets special treatment.
01:18100%.
01:30She gets special treatment.
01:59050.
02:01May 18, 2020, we're all hanging out at Pilgrim Creek
02:05because that's where she normally first shows up.
02:08Everybody's driving back and forth
02:10and going across the bridge really slow
02:12because you can't stop on the bridge.
02:14I was with Tom off a little ways,
02:18and all of a sudden, he got a text, like, 399's out.
02:22OK.
02:23Got it.
02:26Most of us thought there's no way she's going to have cubs.
02:29She's getting older, and it's really rare.
02:33Here they come.
02:34Here.
02:40And sure enough, here she comes with four cups.
02:47I said to myself, this is an amazing, special day.
03:00And it's incredibly nuts, really.
03:07But that's the effect that she has on people.
03:10You saw four, right?
03:11Yes, I did.
03:11Yeah.
03:22Local celebrity bear 399 emerged from her den
03:26in Grand Teton National Park this week,
03:28delighting onlookers with a surprisingly large litter of four
03:32cubs.
03:33At the advanced age of 24, if she's successful in raising these
03:38cubs over the next two years, she'll be the first documented
03:41grizzly to do so in the greater Yellowstone area.
03:53Grizzly bear 399, she's known as the matriarch or the queen in
03:58Grand Teton National Park.
04:01She's famous for coming out with two, three cubs.
04:06And now, miraculously, came out with four cubs, which is very rare.
04:12That's like a human having quadruplets.
04:17She's off the charts famous.
04:19If you meet people out on the side of the road and, you know,
04:22and they're like, have you seen 399?
04:23We want to see 399.
04:24Where's our best chance of seeing her?
04:26We just want to see her.
04:37I just have to say I so admire your work.
04:40Thank you very much.
04:41I follow you on Instagram and I have two of your pictures in my home and I just absolutely,
04:45your photos make me cry when I look at them.
04:47What's your name?
04:48Thank you so much.
04:48Kathy.
04:49Nice to meet you Kathy.
04:50Thank you so much.
04:51Appreciate it.
04:58Since I started photographing 399, it's been 15 years.
05:17By default, I'm her documentarian, I guess.
05:21The remarkable photographer who spent his life on the trail of elusive and endangered animals.
05:29His name is Tom Mangelson.
05:31If all artists have a muse, Tom Mangelson's is this 22-year-old female grizzly bear.
05:37She doesn't have a proper name, but is known by the research number 399.
05:49I guess the number of frames that I've shot, 399, must be upwards of a million.
05:56Some people would call it an obsession and I can't deny that.
06:01She inspires me.
06:05She has given me a lot of pleasure and joy and moved my passion to protect her and her offspring.
06:17The Cubs look really good in that one.
06:20I wish it was closer.
06:22I've worked as Tom Mangelson's personal assistant for the past 20 years
06:27and traveled the world with him.
06:31Tom was really excited to find grizzlies in our backyard.
06:35Prior to that, he had to either go to Canada or Alaska to photograph them.
06:45Yeah, this is her favorite place to come out.
06:48There they are.
06:49There they are, right there.
06:49Right there.
07:00My photographs have helped make her the most famous where there's ever lived.
07:10But her fame makes everything more complicated.
07:17And it also has a potential to harm her and her cubs.
07:33Oh, there she comes.
07:35Here comes the fourth one.
07:37There they are.
07:38Oh!
07:52It's a big job to take care of four cubs and to keep track of them, to keep them out
07:58of trouble.
07:58Just like children.
08:03Unlike wolves, which are very social animals that live in packs,
08:08grizzly bears are solitary.
08:10And so it's all mom.
08:11Mom is the total source of information and protection for all those cubs.
08:16They're coming!
08:18I see two more of them!
08:21I see two more of them!
08:21They're so cold.
08:22They're chasing each other.
08:23They're so cold.
08:23That's a bird.
08:25That's a bird.
08:25That's a bird.
08:28Across the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, cub's survival rate is only 55%.
08:39The number one cause of mortality for cubs in the wild are male grizzly bears.
08:56Male grizzly bears, they see a sow with cubs in the spring.
09:00That's mating season.
09:01That female won't mate with him if she has cubs, but he can kill those cubs and push her into
09:08heat.
09:08It's pretty savage that that bear would then mate with him afterwards, but that's how it works.
09:14And so the males will seek out killing these cubs.
09:31Grizzly bear 399, she developed a unique behavior where she actually raises her cubs in proximity to traffic and to
09:42humans.
09:46And the reason is that male grizzly bears do not like people.
09:51They don't like being seen by people.
09:53They definitely don't like traffic.
09:57Grizzly 399, she learned over time that if she hangs out within 100 yards of the road, she has these
10:05people around that are in a way protecting her cubs from the male grizzly bears.
10:11Which is very, very intelligent and it's very well suited to the national parks.
10:18But now it's become far more complex to survive that proximity to humans.
10:39It's pretty frustrating.
10:40Yeah, go ahead.
10:41Just a little frustrating.
10:46A bear jam is what we call just when all the traffic gets jammed up because there's a bear.
10:53In 2011, we were probably starting to have 100 cars at a bear jam.
10:59Now all of a sudden there might be 400 cars.
11:03It turns into total mayhem.
11:06She's coming.
11:07She's coming.
11:08She's coming.
11:10She's coming.
11:14All the things that could go wrong in one of those bear jam situations.
11:19You know, as a bear biologist, we just kind of go, oh.
11:27People look at her and think, oh, she's idyllically living in the national park, isn't it?
11:31Just wonderful.
11:32But bears that get close to people lose their normal avoidance or fear response.
11:39And that's called habituation.
11:41This is good in a way because it allows them to live in places where there are people.
11:46But it also is risky because it puts them in closer association with people.
12:06399 has been so good at getting her cubs across the highway.
12:12Waiting by the roadside looking both ways and then she'll cross the road and call her cubs.
12:17sometimes one will be left behind and she'll go back across the highway say you
12:23guys stay here I'm going to get Joey I always think it's like Russian roulette
12:31every time they cross the road Russian roulette but she's managed against all
12:38odds except one time and that was snowy
12:45in 2016 399 came out with a single cub really light-faced cub so it just got nicknamed snowy
13:00she was a single cub one of the only single cubs that we know that 399s had 399 played with
13:07snowy a lot
13:14they were just you know so much fun to watch
13:26and then 399 it was crossing road at dusk just north of pilgrim creek and snowy was hit by a
13:34driver that
13:34didn't stop they never found out who hit the cub
13:46at 399 picked up snowy and took him off the road laid the body by a big spruce tree and
13:56then ran up and
13:57down the road balling all night long you could feel 399 how distraught she was that was a really sad
14:12day
14:23all right you guys ready what's the top here with the bear
14:30so 399 is by and far and none the most popular and famous bear here in the tetons and uh
14:40probably on all
14:41honesty in the world we are within minutes of where i was told to maybe go i need to you
14:48all to keep
14:49your fingers crossed think positive thoughts and this is a bear jam let's hop out right there
14:59the trees right there there's mama there's mama right there right there it's right there yeah
15:06oh my gosh oh here she is look right there right there oh i see i see her keep that
15:16on her
15:19grizzly bear management is incredibly complex certainly there's a lot of passion by people
15:26who really enjoy the opportunity to see grizzly bears are really passionate about bears
15:38the grizzly bear was listed under the endangered species act in 1975
15:47we probably had 30 females left in the yellowstone ecosystem that's it the yellowstone bears were about
15:53to go extinct they would be gone today but now they're here because they were listed
16:04we caught them just in the nick of time
16:10you know they're kind of the epitome of a challenging species to recover under the endangered species act
16:16you know they can conflict with people whether it's garbage or livestock or whatever
16:21they can kill people they have killed people
16:32bear management will likely continue to adapt and evolve as we move forward
16:38you said you were in the pilgrim creek area is that correct
16:41so it is very possible that you did see a grizzly there
16:46when a grizzly bear is in conflict with humans we investigate the circumstances
16:51and we evaluate what are our management options
16:57sometimes that might mean capturing that bear and relocating that bear to a different part of the park
17:03or a different part of the ecosystem
17:07the unfortunate reality sometimes that might mean we may have to euthanize a bear and remove it from the
17:18population
17:18399 has habituated and all of her offspring her habituated because her offspring learned from her
17:26if she gets into a situation where she becomes really dangerous to people she's probably going
17:32to have to be removed we don't we don't want that to happen we never want that to happen
17:42there's a lot of knee-jerk opinions about roadside bears nice color behind me
17:51this is a living intelligent emotional being
17:57we don't want everybody just leave the bear alone
18:02only the wild owns the bears
18:06getting pretty far
18:20bear watchers are gathering early this year in anticipation of grizzly 399's emergence from the den
18:27they hope the famous bruin will emerge this april with all four of her cubs the famous family's
18:33presence in grand teton national park is expected to draw large crowds again this summer
18:40it's day 13 waiting for her and haven't even seen the bear let alone 399
18:54watching her basically over 15 years every season you just have to wait it takes so much patience and
19:01waiting but that's what i've done all my life
19:05i was hoping she would come out a week or two earlier than last year because the cubs are much
19:11harder than they're a year older last year i spent 145 days out i mean that's half the year
19:20it's a stupid amount of time you know all those days i probably photographed her 15 maybe
19:28the payoff is great but it's a hell of a lot of waiting
19:49all four cups are just running she's fine and they're playing
19:57now they stop for a second
20:01they're healthy as heck finally after two weeks waiting every day all day
20:10now look at them go wow
20:16man she was like full of energy just the cubs are running ahead of her that was really cool
20:26they ran for like three miles there full out i'd love to see them run
20:38she has inspired me to just enjoy life more honestly it's that simple
20:48but i never got married i sort of missed the boat having kids but maybe 3.99
20:58in a way watching with her with all of her cubs over the years is somewhat
21:05i don't know this sounds goofy but it's replaced that sort of need in a way and now where's she
21:12gonna go
21:24there they are do you see them yeah i got it
21:37in the early spring when they come out of the den they're just looking for any kind of food
21:41by now the cubs are big you know they're all hungry they've been in the den and haven't had anything
21:46to
21:46eat for months at first they're grazing right along the side of the road so they're easy to spot
21:57them but then 399 started moving south heading south out of the park
22:07grizzly bears are a trans boundary species here in grand teton we're a relatively small national park
22:14most of our grizzly bears actually use areas outside of grand teton when food sources are really scarce
22:23but grizzly bears outside the park certainly some controversy involved
22:34we didn't see her much all summer because 3.99 she started being very elusive
22:39it was very unusual so it started being much harder to find her
22:46she was getting in all these people's beehives and was going through neighborhoods
22:54on somebody's porch oh no it's 3.99
23:06she really started changing her behavior and that was really really stressful because
23:11there's just so many things that can go wrong once they get out of the park
23:34i'm a fifth generation rancher from sublet county when i was a kid i spent my summers with my granddad
23:40and we moved cows cowboying they call it in the mountains up here never saw a grizzly bear never
23:47heard of a grizzly bear other than up in alaska or canada or somewhere else
23:59it really varies year to year i mean last year we lost as many as 10 or 12 cattle to
24:06bear kills
24:07and we don't mind feeding a grizzly once in a while but we're trying to feed people not grizzlies
24:13the birds of a grizzly bear bear 399 she's a beautiful animal but i think they habituated that
24:20bear and her cubs to people by chasing her all around and everybody wanted to see her and they
24:27didn't let her be a wild bear and you know those things come back to haunt wildlife most of the
24:32time
24:37what does a person do with their yard right do you just let everything just grow wild in your yard
24:43you manage your yard and this is your yard this is everybody's yard it's public land
24:49it ought to be managed properly i would like to see the state of wyoming be able to manage the
24:56bears
24:56themselves and that would mean hunting allow you know hunting season on the on the grizzly bears
25:03which is fine i think they should be here but they just need to be managed to a certain number
25:11and you know that numbers we're over it
25:17they are a beautiful animal and they take really good pictures they're also a dangerous animal
25:35as great a mother as 399 might be and as cute as the cubs might be she's in fact a
25:45grizzly bear
25:46with long teeth and claws and can do substantial damage to a person in certain situations
25:57you know they can conflict with people actually the first time i ever heard of 399 is when she
26:04mauled a guy in the northern part of grand teton park
26:1615 years ago 2007 uh i've used to get up early and go for runs and and hikes and so
26:25i wanted to do
26:26that in the national park as i'm going up this path all of a sudden there's 399 and her cubs
26:36and i'm yelling hey hey she was charging right at me but just turned and stopped right next to me
26:44arm length away
26:48i stepped directly away from her and i stepped off the edge of the road and i had to take
26:54quick steps to
26:56keep from falling down that moment she charged right at me she bit me in the back
27:04and at that moment i had this thought
27:13that they're just going to eat me
27:16the next thing that happens is i hear this voice yelling hey hey and then there's more commotion
27:27then i hear voices then this paw leaves my leg
27:36when i got to the hospital a park service employee asked what i thought should be done with the bear
27:44i did not want to see anything happen to that bear it was not at all her fault
27:52in a surprise encounter she was feeding on an elk carcass she had offspring with her
27:58the park service called me we agreed to leave that bear on the landscape and not do anything to her
28:03because it was what we call a natural aggression
28:08so that was a long time ago but it was a recognition that there were more and more
28:14bears in the jackson valley and they would be moving south and there'd be more people around
28:24the grizzly bears there's so much controversy there mostly because they're still protected under the
28:29endangered species act the grizzly bears in the greater yellowstone ecosystem they've recovered
28:38more than seven times of what they were and so idaho montana and wyoming have petitioned for the
28:46grizzly bears to be taken off the list and that is on the table right now that is the intention
28:54of the
28:55endangered species act is that an animal recovers and then they're delisted the majority of wyoming
29:03wants that to happen the ranchers want that to happen the hunting community wants that to happen
29:11but the argument for keeping them on the list is that we're not seeing any gene flow between the
29:17distinct populations here in the greater yellowstone ecosystem we've got a really healthy population up
29:25in the bob marshall wilderness and glacier national park you have another population of grizzly bears
29:32and there has not been gene flow between those two populations meaning there's a genetic bottleneck
29:40grizzly bears need connected landscapes and corridors in order to make that gene flow possible
29:48recovery in many people's opinion would be defined by when those two populations can interbreed
29:55some people would argue that we should let that happen first before they're delisted
30:04if they get delisted they're gonna get hunted
30:10399's behavior is a great behavior within a national park if there was a hunting season for grizzlies it
30:17would be a horrible behavior to be that tolerant of people
30:23if there was a hunting season it would actually be some of these roadside bears that would be the first
30:28to go
30:40that whole fall was just always you never knew where she was going to be
30:50it's all private property so the game and fish were chasing people out and we're all worried that
30:58she's going to get in trouble
31:02from a management like perspective i mean she's a nightmare everybody was like oh my god she's in
31:08this neighborhood now she's in this neighborhood now she's back in the park and you talk to people that
31:12work for the forest service they work for the park service they work for u.s fish and wildlife
31:17wyoming game and fish the public is like telling them they need to do this they need to like protect
31:23this animal there's so much pressure on them
31:31late saturday an interagency team successfully attached radio collars to two of grizzly bear 399's
31:38yearlings in order to monitor the bear's location and take steps to prevent conflicts between the bears
31:44and residents of jackson hole
31:52look at that
32:01that whole parking lot was full of agency people in the parking lot was closed off
32:11they trapped three of the cubs three nine nine she ran up in that little hill there obviously
32:19really stressed out looking for her cubs
32:24i've seen her lose cubs before just in the bushes and stuff and she goes nuts
32:28by huffing and drooling and standing up and running around and bawling like crazy and
32:57over the weekend the u.s fish and wildlife service collared two of 399's four yearling cubs
33:04after increasing conflicts with humans south of jackson excuse me for interrupting but what
33:10happened two days ago it was pretty brutal i think she was separated with her one cub from her three
33:18other
33:18cubs she's 26 years old she does not need to have her cubs darted and drugged yeah tom no thank
33:26thanks for that response and this is where you know this passion comes through right
33:30dr savine you know any response to that what happened was to try to get colors on some of
33:37these sub-adults so that we could understand where they're getting into trouble and most disturbing to
33:43us bear biologists is what her offspring are going to do because they're learning how to live around
33:49people and you know we've got increasing numbers of bears and we've got increasing numbers of people in
33:55their habitat and that that collusion is the dance that's occurring and i just hope that we can
34:05keep her out of trouble
34:11so
34:24so
34:37Grizzly 399 and her four-yearlings paid a visit to Jackson last night around 10.30 p.m.
34:43and got a reception from law enforcement and wildlife authorities.
34:48Five grizzly bears walk the entire length of Jackson Hole.
34:52Everybody in Jackson Hole held their collective breaths.
35:00It was a wake-up to people here.
35:07Where she goes and what she does, she teaches that to her young.
35:13If an animal's around people a lot and nothing bad happens,
35:17they become more likely to be around people because it's not that scary.
35:24That behavior outside of a national park, in the town of Jackson, in a neighborhood,
35:29along a highway, is not tolerated.
35:32That bear is usually euthanized.
35:36399 and the Cubs were escorted by police through downtown Jackson.
35:41Does she get special treatment?
35:45100%.
35:46Yeah, 100% she gets special treatment.
36:00These bears are getting pushed into more human conflicts because their natural food sources
36:06are being hit hard by climate change.
36:09The big changes that we're seeing are in the fall.
36:13Right now it's the first week of October and it's still 70 degrees and sunny
36:19when historically we'd be getting our first snowfalls right about now.
36:26Our falls are getting warmer, our springs are getting warmer,
36:29and in general our summers are getting longer out here, driven by climate change.
36:35And so plants that bears like to eat, like chokecherry and serviceberry and buffaloberry,
36:42are all fruiting earlier and they're providing food in late summer instead of early fall
36:48when the bears need them going to hibernation.
36:50And what that could mean is that the bears are going into the fall hungrier,
36:56seeking alternative food sources, traveling further in search of food
37:01because their fall food sources are not as reliable as they once were.
37:08So bear-human conflicts are only going to increase,
37:12and that is not the bear's fault.
37:16All these arguments over a single grizzly bear,
37:21$3.99 is the symbol.
37:23It's not about one individual animal.
37:27It's about grizzly bears surviving into the future.
37:32It's about the preservation of nature itself.
37:40Grizzly bear $3.99 and her four cubs have been elusive
37:43ever since their walk through downtown Jackson last month.
37:47The famous family has been rarely seen,
37:49but the radio collars on two of the cubs
37:52provide wildlife officials with the family's location.
37:56$3.99's fans assume the grizzlies have made it to Den
37:59in Grand Teton National Park,
38:01where they're expected to hibernate.
38:03No.
38:14We're back.
38:15Yeah.
38:30Do it.
38:32In Grand Teton National Park,
38:34So go ahead and cross Pilgrim Creek and maybe even get out the scope and scan those hills.
39:04Every day we wait gets closer to the day she should be out. Hopefully they're all healthy and well and
39:13made it through the winter, which we actually don't know for sure.
39:18So I know what she's waiting for, but I'm getting a little worried actually.
39:29So I think we start taking for granted that she's going to survive the winter, she's going to survive the
39:33den.
39:35But she's kind of the very end of her life.
39:43In 2021, Montana had 128 conflicts with grizzly mares, resulting in two human injuries, one human fatality.
39:55We did also have 10 documented grizzly bear mortalities this last year.
40:02The day I'll be talking about grizzly bear conflicts was until about 2005 when we started seeing conflicts every year.
40:10But I think the real elephant in the room is the delisting of grizzly bears.
40:18And then turn over the management to the states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
40:26We did that with wolves recently.
40:31And they massacred wolves.
40:35If that's the kind of management states do to wolves, why the hell would we ever want to turn over
40:42the management of grizzly bears to the states?
40:50Okay.
40:52Thanks a lot, everybody.
40:54We're done.
41:01Headline reads, 399 faces tough future.
41:07Hillary Cooley is worried about the season ahead for grizzly 399 and her cubs have yet to emerge from hibernation.
41:14The future's not so bright for these guys, she said during a meeting of state and federal wildlife and land
41:20managers, Wednesday and Jackson.
41:22They've been in a lot of trouble.
41:26They've not been in a lot of trouble, in my opinion.
41:29They've gone south.
41:30They've gone through the neighborhoods.
41:31They've gotten in some beehives.
41:34But that's not a lot of trouble.
41:46Just keep your eye on that whole open area.
41:49You got the longer lens?
41:51Yeah.
41:51Okay, hold it there.
41:53Okay.
41:53Here she goes.
42:35Oh, my God.
42:36I told you she'd come down the river.
42:37I knew she'd come down the river.
42:43Tom, how are you feeling?
42:45I'm very amazed that we saw her.
42:51I was just about ready to give up.
42:53I'd give up on her for a day.
42:55Yeah.
42:55Yeah.
42:57She's just sauntering.
42:58The cubs all looked really healthy.
43:00Yeah.
43:01Yeah, I was starting to worry, really.
43:04Yeah.
43:10Yeah.
43:11We're coming right to me.
43:31okay we did it she's out of the den we were in there for the last couple little minutes
43:38all by ourselves and she walked right freaking past us i mean was that not amazing but she came
43:44across and just went just like that's like your heart just starts pounding i mean i've
43:50i've been watching her for 17 years and it still is so thrilling
44:26there is no doubt that 399 has a lot of experience of how to successfully raise cubs how to navigate
44:33the landscape with cubs but certainly once those cubs reach adulthood there are questions about
44:41you know what is their survival especially some of these cubs that are habituated
44:46are now leaving the park because the park is fully occupied with grizzlies there just isn't
44:52additional suitable habitat available for grizzlies to coexist in some of these highly human dominated
45:01areas look at all the cars unbelievable holy man 2022 the cubs were two and a half so that's the
45:10summer they get kicked out the night before we saw her nursing them and we didn't realize she's still
45:17nursed when they're that big and then the next day she starts running down the trail and she's swatting
45:24them and growling at them and was what is going on nobody could figure it out she chased them off
45:35and then the next day we saw her and she didn't have the cubs
45:40and then you saw her cubs come out of the trees and she chased them for a mile
45:49then the cubs got the picture it's like oh we can't come back anymore but it was really sad to
45:55watch because we'd been watching them all being so loving sometimes cubs will stick together that
46:03first summer they're kicked out for a little while and then they separate but for the most part all of
46:11sudden they're out on their own
46:12it wasn't until most recently we had a bear which we later understood
46:36um to be 10 57 a cub of the famous mama bear 399. this is when you first noticed the
46:48bear
46:48yeah the bear turned and looked
46:54the bear had been on other people's porch as well and actually had gotten into someone's freezer
47:01game and fish they told me that that was the 13th call that they had received
47:15there's a difference between a habituated bear and a food conditioned bear
47:21a habituated bear is familiar with people in the environment without being spooked
47:28a food conditioned bear sees people or signs of people and associates them with food and that's one thing that
47:42society
47:44won't tolerate
48:01it broke my heart i mean i obviously saw how difficult it is for 399 to raise these four
48:09cubs to sub adult you've got to give these bears a better chance than that
48:17when we learned that 10 57 was euthanized i felt as humans we were responsible for that and that's where
48:26we've
48:27kind of um kind of shortchanged the the bears
48:58we were responsible for that and that's where we were at the H
49:10399 has changed people's attitude towards grizzly bears and because of that she will
49:20likely save bears from being delisted and killed who's this this is my dad i thought
49:28so tim sir nice to meet you we love your work thank you pleasure to meet you this guy got
49:32a shot of 399 this morning you did yeah through some trees but ever since i was there oh well
49:39and i didn't get a shot no so is that the first time you've seen her yes yeah i've been
49:44here two
49:45other times and i've been looking for her but i haven't seen her it's the first time so good for
49:50you thank you she's such a challenge to photograph i mean seriously photograph really good images
50:00i mean i have probably really great image i have to say maybe five or ten you know ones that
50:08i in my
50:08heart like the guardian and first light
50:22out of this age
50:26those are special images images that i say that i got it you know that's great good job tommy
50:41hey excuse me yeah what's going on here
50:45there's a grizzly bear far out on your left oh awesome just watch where the people are looking
50:51cool thank you you're welcome
50:57you know i think every year i should do something else get a life whatever
51:03and then she surprises me
51:17three nine nine comes out of the den this year with another cup
51:22at 27 years old she is the oldest living jersey bear that's ever given birth in the greater yellowstone
51:30area i got it
51:37it just amazes everybody because everybody says she's too old she can't have any more cubs but she did
51:46the cub had a lot of spirit
51:48so i personally named him spirit just for my own sake
51:57three nine nine gives me a lot of hope
52:00the odds are stacked against her
52:03but she knows every day
52:04every year
52:06trying to raise her cubs
52:08in a really difficult world
52:12she's just one special bear