Grizzly 399's remains cremated

JACKSON (WNE) — Less than a week and a half after Grizzly 399 was hit and killed by a car in the Snake River Canyon, federal land and wildlife managers decided to cremate her body and return her ashes to Pilgrim Creek.

None of her body parts were retained for educational purposes or otherwise, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said Friday.

Pilgrim Creek is in the core of 399’s home range, the area in Grand Teton National Park most associated with her memory. She denned in the area every winter and attracted thousands of wildlife watchers every spring, as they waited, cameras ready, for her to emerge with her cubs.

By cremating the famous bear, who has been heralded over the past week as a symbol of her species’ recovery in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Grand Teton National Park did what the majority of bear buffs had lobbied them to do.

Rather than taxidermizing 399, her fiercest advocates and followers had asked officials to return her body to the landscape.

Now, 399’s ashes are scattered across her home range.

“399 will always be part of this special place,” Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said in the statement. “However, there is still work to do to ensure her descendants and all grizzly bears continue to thrive in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It’s up to all of us to make sure they do.”

This story was published on November 2, 2024.