24-year-old Grandmother Has Quadruplets, Delighting Fans

June 9, 2020 10:44 AM

'She still lives!' Famed Yellowstone bear emerges from winter – with cubs
posted by Slinga (19 comments total)

This is not the Bat Boy content I was hoping for.
posted by rhizome at 10:47 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Bears are awesome.
posted by Fizz at 10:51 AM on June 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

Congrats, 399! I can't imagine having to give birth alone, let alone 4 times and being an older gal. Happy for her, hopefully these babies grow up well.
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:15 AM on June 9, 2020

squeeeeee bebeh bearz!!! they are so cute. I hope they all survive and thrive!
posted by supermedusa at 11:18 AM on June 9, 2020

even knowing she is a known mauler i do not know if i posses either the basic intelligence or the self preservation instinct not to hug those cubs if i saw them irl

good thing i hate camping
posted by poffin boffin at 12:14 PM on June 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

I love camping and fully accept that I may die of trying to pet a mountain lion. the baby bears would def be hard to resist!
posted by supermedusa at 12:17 PM on June 9, 2020

even knowing she is a known mauler

User name! Get your ursine user name!
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:31 PM on June 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

It would make a good tombstone inscription too.
posted by Slinga at 1:12 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Being married to a social worker, the top headline was hard to read. Thankfully, the actual article was a delightfully chilled, restorative elixir in the desert of joy in which we currently live.
posted by Godspeed.You!Black.Emperor.Penguin at 1:32 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

C'mon, it was one mauling, thirteen years ago, and Dennis VanDenbos never held a grudge: ...as VanDenbos was loaded in a truck and taken for medical care, he radioed back to the rangers to say that he had inadvertently provoked the attack and wanted no harm to come to the bears. They were spared. “I didn’t get a sense, based on her actions, that she wanted to hurt me, or eat me,” VanDenbos said.

I do admire her savvy in managing the BWB sitch with Bruno.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:50 PM on June 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

She has her own wikipedia page with this super depressing tidbit: "Hunters in the area said they would target 399 because she is the biggest trophy, the most famous."

Fuck trophy hunter.
posted by peeedro at 2:33 PM on June 9, 2020 [16 favorites]

i hope she mauls them all
posted by poffin boffin at 2:37 PM on June 9, 2020 [23 favorites]

"Maul all the trophy hunters!!!"
posted by WalkerWestridge at 3:37 PM on June 9, 2020 [7 favorites]

Those cubs are straight out of a Steiff catalog.
posted by rhizome at 5:57 PM on June 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Another interesting/depressing quote from her wikipedia page: "Grizzly 399 is known for having become habituated to people when near roads and mildly developed areas. A researcher determined that she seeks these roadside areas over backcountry because it is safer for her cubs, where male bears often try to kill them."

Also, Bruno gets a name but she has a number? Is this a Maxwell Smart/Agent 99 situation? Are they spies?

I would watch that show.
posted by doift at 6:55 PM on June 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

Pretty decent chance I saw this mamma and proginy just east of Yellowstone Lake when I worked there nigh on 10 years ago. Cute family. Photogenic.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:30 AM on June 10, 2020

4 cubs is pretty rare, no? She's gotta be eating well.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 3:04 PM on June 10, 2020

delicious hunters
posted by poffin boffin at 4:32 PM on June 11, 2020

Her body weight looks pretty decent, too, despite having been feeding four cubs all winter. She must have been a round ball of bear-ness when she went into hibernation.
posted by tavella at 12:37 PM on June 12, 2020