As an Endangered Species, Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are protected within the boundaries of the National Parks. But what happens to these same bears when the wander outside of the park?
For many years Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem have relied on National Park visitors as a means of survival. With cub mortality rate around 50% many Grizzly sows have learned that by staying near roads their cub survival rate has increased. Male Grizzlies, who often seek to kill the young cubs in order to bring the females back into estrus to mate, tend to avoid the roads. Therefore many Grizzlies including the famous Grizzly 399 rely on these roads to keep their cubs alive.
As an Endangered Species, Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem depend on breeding females to produces offspring about every three years and carry on their genetic diversity among the population.
As popularity among National Parks, such as Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park grows and visitor numbers continue to rise; pressure on these road-side bears has begun to hit a tipping point. When grizzlies move outside of the National Park boarders protections for these endangered species pass into other departments, such as Wyoming Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Just outside Grand Teton National Park in the Bridger-Teton Togwotee Mountain pass is Grizzly 863, commonly known as Felicia. As a road-side bear living outside the protection of the National Park she has drawn lots of attention from photographers and wildlife viewers who seek to have an experience with a wild bear and her two small cubs. With traffic growing to as many as 75 cars at a time, pulled off the highway illegally, the situation has become a danger to both wildlife viewers and the traffic that is driving through the pass.
Wyoming Department of Fish and Wildlife have issued a statement that urges wildlife viewers to stay clear of the Bridger-Teton Togwotee mountain pass as they plan to haze Grizzly 863 and her two cubs deeper into the woods. If their attempts fail they will either relocate the bears or remove them entirely from the population.
Wildlife advocates have created a petition on change.org urging WDFW not to destroy a healthy non-aggressive breeding female from an endangered species.
While Grizzly 863 fights for her life against the traffic on Bridger-Teton Togwotee pass other Grizzlies are finding their way into the town of Jackson Hole. Drawn to the food attractants left out by people, such as unsecured garbage, compost, fruit trees and beehives, bears who get into food in town either end up being relocated or euthanized.
Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) Grizzly 863 and her two cubs of the year play alongside the Bridger-Teton Togwotee Mountain pass in 2021.survive in the wild.
A park ranger assists Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) Grizzly 399 and her four cubs cross the road in Grand Teton National Park, WY in 2020.
Grizzly 399’s cub plays with a traffic cone in Grand Teton National Park while the park rangers keep visitors at a safe distance.
Experience Wildlife has been documenting the Grizzlies Bears of Greater Yellowstone since 2017. Our photographs have been used to help keep these bears on the Endangered Species List, which have saved them from being hunted. All Limited edition prints sales support this project. Here are some of the images that have been made to support this project. These images could not have been possible without the continued support of my art collectors.
Last year was terrible year for grizzly bears in Jackson Hole. Five human food-conditioned grizzlies have been put down in the valley. While Grizzly 399 receives most of the media focus, countless other bears in and around the Jackson Hole area are also at risk of losing their lives due to improperly secured human food.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have the chance to help protect Jackson’s bears now.
Teton County has already released the proposed regulation to solve this problem! Please join us in thanking and supporting the County staff and Commission for caring about bears and all of our wildlife!
The Alliance and our friends at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation are launching the final stage of the Bear-Friendly Jackson Hole campaign to support the County in adopting updated wildlife feeding regulations, which would require bear-proof trash cans countywide. By preventing problematic food sources, we can prevent the unnecessary deaths of bears in the valley.
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