JACKSON (WNE) — A young female grizzly bear that likely shares the bloodlines of a celebrated Grand Teton National Park sow is now roaming clear across the ecosystem near Beartooth Pass.
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JACKSON (WNE) — A young female grizzly bear that likely shares the bloodlines of a celebrated Grand Teton National Park sow is now roaming clear across the ecosystem near Beartooth Pass.
Pending the results of in-the-works genetic testing, it’s impossible to say with certainly whether the subadult 2 1/2-year-old animal that was relocated as a precaution Monday is one of the two cubs grizzly 399 cast away earlier this summer.
But based on the animal’s age and its whereabouts when it was trapped and collared for research earlier this year, Wyoming Game and Fish Department carnivore chief Dan Thompson said that there’s a “high likelihood” the young grizzly is in fact the offspring of a bear that’s so famous she has her own social media channels and a book in her name.
Before being live-trapped and driven to the Shoshone National Forest’s Fox Creek drainage, the subadult female had frequented private land between Teton Park’s south boundary and the Gros Ventre River for “at least a few weeks,” Thompson said. The animal had no history of conflict but was habituated, had shown signs of having received a human “food reward” and, recently, was sticking tight to private land.
Grizzly 399, now 23 years old, gained fame for having raised at least four litters of cubs well within view of the roads in Grand Teton Park. Her cubs, which have also gained a following, have been moved before by the state agency when they departed the park, and at times that has ignited great controversy.