Black bear hit, killed by car outside Grand Teton National Park

JACKSON (WNE) — A black bear was struck and killed by a semitruck Monday in Grand Teton National Park.

The adult female bear was hit at around 10:30 a.m. south of Moose Junction on Highway 26/89. The park deemed the collision an accident. There was nothing the driver could have done to avoid hitting the bear, said Emily Davis, spokesperson for Teton Park.

Although the driver who killed the bear Monday was not deemed to be at fault, there’s plenty of aggressive driving in the park and in the valley that has the potential to end in bloodshed, wildlife photographer Savannah Rose said.

Rose said that when she’s driving the speed limit in the park, or five miles per hour over, she gets dangerously passed by cars that go “zipping off at 70 miles per hour.”

Rose said she sees dead and “squashed animals” on roads every day.

There are far more black bears than grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and, as such, they get tangled up in conflict with the humans they cohabitate alongside at a much higher rate than grizzlies.

Last summer was particularly deadly for black bears in the county and the park.

There were 16 black bear conflicts in the park, more than double the number of conflicts in 2022. Wildlife managers killed two bears and relocated five others. Park bear managers usually capture just one or two bears on average per year. These conflicts were driven by sloppy food storage at popular lakeside locales.

In Teton County, Wyoming Game and Fish relocated 10 black bears and killed six. Black bears were involved in 148 conflicts, about twice the annual average. Of those involved, 127 unsecured human garbage.

This story was published on August 12, 2025.