October 24, 2024

My Thoughts About 399

The death of an animal influencer

I have so many emotions regarding the death of the most famous grizzly bear in history. Here is my take:  

I loved her.  How can you not love any being that raises four babies to adulthood?  It’s a great accomplishment in the animal world just as it is for humans.

Of course, the way she did that is tragic.  She stayed near the road to keep her offspring safe from male grizzlies.  Her behavior was partially driven by climate change.  See the great documentary available on Prime Video, “Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons." 

Thomas Mangelson’s famous photos and anthropomorphism of Grizzly 399 had lethal consequences.  Her cubs, raised in the safety and nightmare traffic caused by his beautiful photography, were so habituated to humans that they caused much concern and work for the park service.  One of her 4 famous cubs had to be euthanized.

His words in the documentary reveal many anthropomorphization tendencies.  The most telling of which, for me, was calling the later euthanized cub by a different name than the park service designated name.  The recent rise of shows like the HBO Documentary "Chimp Crazy" is a great example if you can stand to watch it.  I was able to do it through fingers over my face like I use for jump scare horror movies.

There is no doubt that her death was a tragedy.  The oldest living reproducing grizzly in the park raised 4 cubs to adulthood and then reemerged with another yearling currently at large but thought to be unhurt in the traffic accident that killed 399.  

Spending so much time near the road undoubtably caused or was a major factor in the accident.  Simply by being so familiar with, and often on, the road.  The hypothesis by the park service is that 399, along with her yearling cub, was trapped against a hillside in the accident Tuesday night around 10:30 pm according to Lincoln County Sheriff Department incident report.

Although I’m sure her cubs may use the same tactics, nature does will out and eventually that behavior will die out.

For now, I’m just sad she’s gone.  She was a force of nature in every sense of the word.