World famous grizzly bear fatally struck in Wyoming

A beloved grizzly carnivore known arsenic an ambassador for her type was fatally struck connected a road successful Wyoming, National Park Service officials said Wednesday. 

Grizzly carnivore 399, who sewage her sanction done a investigation number duty successful 2001, had a yearling cub pinch her erstwhile she was deed connected a road successful Snake River Canyon southbound of Jackson, authorities said. The cub's whereabouts are unknown, but there's nary grounds to propose that it was injured. 

The driver is OK, officials said. While nan circumstances of nan fatal clang were not instantly clear, authorities said 49 grizzly bears died because of conveyance collisions betwixt 2009 and 2023. 

Grizzly bears mostly unrecorded to beryllium astir 25, though immoderate successful nan chaotic person lived for complete 35 years, according to nan Fish & Wildlife Service. Grizzly carnivore 399 was 28 erstwhile she was killed.

 A Grizzly carnivore named "399" walks pinch her 4 cubs on nan main road adjacent Signal Mountain connected June 15, 2020 extracurricular Jackson, Wyoming.  George Frey / Getty Images

Wildlife photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen antecedently described nan carnivore arsenic his muse.

"Her intelligence, her behavior, her beauty," Mangelsen told "60 Minutes" successful 2018. "The truth that she's had each these offspring. There's not galore bears that I cognize of that's had 3 sets of triplets."

In 2020, she was spotted pinch 4 cubs.

Mangelsen is not unsocial successful appreciating grizzly carnivore 399. People from astir nan world followed her for decades, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator Hilary Cooley.

"At 28 years old, she was nan oldest known reproducing female grizzly carnivore successful nan Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem," Cooley said.

Her personality was confirmed done receptor tags and a microchip. 

Before 1800, location were an estimated 50,000 grizzly bears surviving passim 18 occidental States, including Wyoming, according to nan Fish and Wildlife Service. By 1975, nan organization successful nan 48 contiguous states was reduced to betwixt 700 to 800. 

After decades of being listed arsenic threatened successful nan little 48 states nether nan U.S.  Endangered Species Act, nan organization has grown to astatine slightest 1,923 grizzly bears successful nan 48 contiguous states.

In:
• Grizzly Bear
• Grand Teton National Park