Reign of famed Grizzly 399 ends

JACKSON — Like hundreds of other people who saw Grizzly 399, Caren Carpenter-Marshall’s story began unexpectedly.

The transplant from Washington state was driving home from work Monday, passing by Astoria Bridge in the Snake River Canyon, when she saw a handful of cars stopped on the side of the road. She pulled off to investigate, and saw two grizzly bears on the other side of the highway. At first, Carpenter-Marshall, 59, was delighted just to see the grizzlies, a bucket list item of hers. But then friends who saw her pictures started telling her that she’d likely seen 399, arguably the most famous bear in the world. Carpenter-Marshall’s delight turned to thrill. It was the first time she’d ever seen the ursine matriarch.

But by Wednesday, Carpenter-Marshall was crestfallen. She was one of the last people to see 399 alive.

“I’ve always wanted to see 399 but not like this,” Carpenter-Marshall told the Jackson Hole Daily on Wednesday. “I wanted to see her on a hill with cubs and a zoom lens, but not the day before she died.”

Grizzly 399, the vaunted grizzly bear sow who has delighted an unfathomable number of wildlife watchers for the better part of two decades, died Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday morning that the 28-year-old grizzly had been hit and killed by a car in the Snake River Canyon. The driver was “okay,” officials said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed Grizzly 399’s identity through ear tags and a microchip. The whereabouts of her yearling cub are unknown, but there is no evidence the yearling was involved in the accident. The wildlife agency is monitoring the area, and other officials are optimistic about the cub’s chances given that it’s a year-and-a-half old, and that denning season is near.

There are “high chances of survival going forward for the yearling,” Grand Teton National Park Bear Biologist Justin Schwabedissen said in a call with reporters.

399 has been the subject of documentaries, the focus of an untold number of photographs, and a beloved wild inhabitant of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Known for raising her litters of cubs along the side of the road in Grand Teton National Park, 399 was a visible envoy from the animal kingdom who not only taught people about how bears raise their young but also broke biological barriers. In 2023, Grizzly 399 emerged from hibernation with a small cub of the year that bear buffs alternately call “Spirit” and “Rowdy.” In doing so, she became the oldest known grizzly mother in Greater Yellowstone.

“She truly was an icon and an ambassador for not only her species, but also the wildness of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins told reporters Wednesday.

Jenkins tied 399’s fame to the successful recovery of grizzly bears in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Grizzlies were first protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, when there were only 150 or so grizzly bears left in the Greater Yellowstone, mostly in Yellowstone National Park. Now, officials estimate there are nearly 1,000. Over almost three decades, she had 18 cubs. Not all of them survived.

But some of her brood, like Grizzly 610, are now raising cubs of their own in Teton Park.

For wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen, 399’s death was a blow. He is perhaps the bear’s best-known documentarian, having spent the last decade or so of his life documenting her movements in Jackson Hole.

“It’s a big loss to a lot of people and the park system and bears in general,” Mangelsen told the Daily on Wednesday. “And she had so many friends and fans. She was the most known bear that ever lived. It’s just a shame she didn’t live out the rest of the years and die in the den or something more peaceful.”

When and where, exactly, the crash occurred is unclear. It’s also unclear whether 399 died from the vehicle strike or if first responders on the scene put her down. Dan Thompson, large carnivore supervisor with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, referred the Daily to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where spokesperson Joe Szuszwalak declined to answer the paper’s questions about the accident itself. He said the agency does not investigate traffic crashes.

“There is no further investigation into this incident by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” Szuszwalak said.

The agency has custody of 399’s body and is determining next steps.

“No decisions have been made at this time,” Szuszwalak said.

From 2009 to 2023, drivers have killed 49 grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, according to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. Two of 399’s cubs are included in that number.

Captain Brian Andrews with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said the driver who hit 399 was driving down the canyon on his way home from work when 399 crossed the travel lane and he collided with the bear. Andrews declined to provide the driver’s name, on advice of the county attorney. The Sheriff’s Office is still compiling reports about the incident, and the attorney told Andrews to wait until those are finished.

The driver is not being charged, Andrews said.

“There was nothing to the crash other than it was just a vehicle versus animal crash,” Andrews said. “Nothing criminal, just one of them things.”

But on Wednesday 399’s prodigious fan club was in mourning.

“It’s all I’ve seen online all day,” Carpenter-Marshall said. “I’ve got friends who cried all afternoon.”

Carpenter-Marshall, who saw Grizzly 399 only once but followed her exploits online for years, wasn’t attracted to 399 because of her biological prowess or her fame. Rather, she connected with the bear as a fellow mother. On Monday she watched that maternity unfold as 399 rubbed her nose against her cub’s.

“I felt mother love,” Carpenter-Marshall said. “To me, that’s what it was. She was loving on her cub.”

This story was published on October 24, 2024.