A grizzly bear super mom who found fame for showing off her cubs to tourists at the roadside has given birth to her 17th baby.
The wild grizzly who lives in the Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming is still producing cubs, even at her grand age of 24 years old.
In the wild, grizzlies only live long past 26 years, but that hasn’t stopped this super mom from birthing a litter of four cubs.
In itself, four cubs in a single litter for a grizzly bear is pretty rare, before even considering the grizzly’s age.
Known as Grizzly 399, she became famous for being often visible at roadsides with her family which led to social media accounts being created in her name.
It is believed that the ‘super-mom’ learned to use the busy roads to avoid males who have been known to kill young bear cubs.
This technique clearly paid off for Grizzly 399 who has officially become the most successful documented grizzly mother of all time.
These stunning photos were taken by Kate and Adam Rice. Speaking on them, Adam said:
“We weren’t sure if she would have cubs again in her advanced age, let alone four, which is extremely rare.”
“We were shocked when we heard the news that she had four cubs, it seemed like her way of proving us wrong.”
Kate is a photographer at the park and says she has fallen in love with bears altogether.
“She often grazes in meadows near the road, which provides an excellent opportunity for people to get a little glimpse into the life of a wild bear.”
“Female bears in national parks will often raise their cubs near the roadside as it is thought they use people for protection from dangers such as male grizzlies who threaten the cubs.”
Grizzly 399’s first headline appearance was in 2011 when she and her then five-year-old daughter both began to raise cubs in the same area.
This is believed to be a first of its kind behavior as the daughter adopted one of 399’s cubs and raised it successfully herself.
