By Jim Stanford on July 26, 2011
Grizzly 610 watches one of her cubs climb a tree. The young bruin now has three cubs, after adopting one from her mother. Click to enlarge.
In a plot line that could have been lifted from a Palin family drama, two high-profile grizzly mamas in Grand Teton National Park have performed a rare feat of bear behavior: a cub exchange.
Grizzly No. 399 has passed off one of her three cubs to grizzly No. 610, herself a daughter of the famous grandma. Grizzly 610 is rearing the adopted cub with her two offspring of the year.
At 15 years old, grandma griz apparently doesn’t have the energy to raise three young bears, the way she did in 2006-08 when 610 was a cub. The two bruin families have been occupying the same range — often along park roadways — since emerging from hibernation this year with their respective offspring.
The handoff took place last week. Those pesky wildlife photographers were the first to report the behavior, and the park issued a press release yesterday. Read the full report here.
(Photo by Gary Pollock, National Park Service)
Posted under Environment
Here’s a link to the video I shot of 610 on Friday night and Saturday morning. You can see her yellow ear tags, and that the white faced cub is not with her… They could have swapped two cubs, really…hard to tell without some DNA testing I guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSOeyn1SUIc
“In a plot line that could have been lifted from a Palin family drama,”
Unbelievable and stupid! Why drag politics into this?
Pretty kick ass in my book. Are their names branch hoop and rig?
karen, it’s a joke. get over yourself.
Plus, isnt Sarah Palin a reality star now? Or half as much a politician as Jesse Ventura….at least he finished his term.
I’m just disappointed Jim acknowledged her self-appointed “mama griz” alter-ego. Or was it just the conventional wisdom that Trig really is horny-baby-griz’s child…
No matter, she gets easier to ignore every day. Wish the media would agree.