Bear 539 was removed this week from Yellowstone National Park after providing many park visitors with perhaps their only chance to ever see a grizzly bear in the wild.  Bear 539, also referred to as "Blondie" by park employees, was captured and sent to a research facility at Washington State University.

Bear 539 began appearing in the Lake Village area of Yellowstone National Park in the Spring, 2006.  She was frequently seen in and around Lake Village and along the road to Fishing Bridge.  It was speculated often that she stayed near the "security" of the developed areas due to her small size.  Larger bears seldom came near the developed areas, so there was some logic behind this line of thought.  Eventually, she began breaking into sewer lines in the employee RV park.  Sewer undoubtedly smelled similar to food sources for the bear.   There are currently no regulations requiring sewer lines be 'bear proof' in Yellowstone National Park.  Considering a several week-old rotting carcass smells like dinner to a bear, it is somewhat surprising more bears haven't cracked open a sewer pipe running before.  More importantly, grey water also is disposed through sewer lines.  Gray water often contains food particles due to scraps discarded through dish washing.  Employees I have spoke to who live in the employee RV park indicated that food particles are likely just as common in sewer lines as actual sewer.

During the early summer of 2006, Bear 539 was trapped, collared, and relocated to the Thorofare region of Yellowstone.  She returned to the Lake area within 3 days.  She was continually hazed out of developed areas where she was often seen grazing natural food sources.  She made it through the remainder of 2006 and denned that Fall.

With Spring 2007 arriving, so did Bear 539.  Once again, she was a common sight early in the season in the Lake/Fishing Bridge area.  However, she resumed her old habit of breaking into sewer lines.  This earned her a second nickname, Poo Bear.  She was still a very small bear.  Grizzlies spend the summer months eating foods high in protein, helping to promote growth.  In the Fall, they tend to eat foods higher in fat, such as whitebark pine nuts and army cutworm moths.  Given that she spent much of the summer being chased out of the developed areas, it was no surprise that she had not grown much.

The Park Service went to great lengths to haze her out of the developed areas, and for the most part, it seemed to work.  She spent less time in the developed areas than she had the previous season.  But with continued instances of property damage, she was once again trapped and relocated, this time to the Gallatins, northwest of the park and over 100 miles from the Lake area.  Within a few weeks, Bear 539 had returned.  She initially settled in Pelican Valley, where she remained out of trouble for a couple of weeks.  But eventually, she returned to the Lake area.  Once she came back into that area, the decision was made to trap her again, this time sending her to Washington State University's bear research program.  On August 19, she was trapped one last time and removed from the wild.  She weighed in at a reported 140 pounds, very light for a three year old grizzly.  Given how much time she had spent traveling, not to mention the hazing efforts early in the season, it is not surprising that she weighed so little.  Undoubtedly, she would not have survived the denning season this winter carrying as little weight as she was at the time of capture, though that is just speculation.

Bear 539 provided many visitors to Yellowstone National Park a chance to see a grizzly in the wild.  Undoubtedly, she was habituated to human presence, though she never acted in an aggressive manner to obtain human food.  Bear 539 was always better behaved than some of the visitors who saw her.  It is never a good idea to approach closely to a bear for any reason.  Bears do not need our food.  Enjoy them as they are, doing what they do naturally.

The official statement from the National Park Service can be viewed here.