I photographed the same family of grizzly bears for 17 years – here’s what I learned (and the number one misconception people have about them)

It is the family of Wyoming grizzlies that touched the hearts of millions and changed the public perception of one of the world’s most powerful predators.

Mother bear ‘Grizzly 399’ – so named because she is the 399th bear registered in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem – and her cubs have a huge following, with thousands of people flocking to catch a glimpse of them, often ‘ create bear jam’ along roads.

MailOnline Travel spoke to Thomas D Mangelsen, the award-winning photographer who helped tell the family’s incredible story through his photographs. The 77-year-old photographer and conservationist, who lives in the Wyoming town of Moose, has been following the family for 17 years and shares some of his most striking grizzly portraits in a new photo book Grizzly 399: The world’s most famous mother bear (published by Rizzoli).

Mangelsen says what is unique about 399 is that she ‘puts up with people’. He says: ‘There are sometimes bear jams of 1,000 people, if you can imagine that. If there are too many people on the road, too much noise and people (who get very excited) she will just pull back and just go around everyone, which is very intelligent of her.’

Photographer and conservationist Thomas D Mangelsen (above) says what’s unique about 399 is that she ‘puts up with people’

The book points out that 399 teaches her young ‘when to scurry to their mother’s side at the first sign of danger’

And she learned how to navigate the roads that criss-cross the land surrounding the Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks where she lives. He says: ‘She’s very clever… when she does cross a motorway, she’ll look both ways to see if there are any cars coming.’

Mangelsen observes the family for 10 hours a day for four to five months of each year. At one point he waited from morning to night for 23 days without seeing a bear before 399 finally came out of her den.

Aware of the dangers bears can pose if provoked, he makes sure to keep a safe distance from the family and only shoots them from the road. He explains: ‘It’s really too dangerous to walk with any bears here in the woods. I don’t chase bears because that’s asking for trouble.

“You might come across a bear that’s with its cubs or a carcass … then you could potentially get into trouble and obviously the bear could be in more trouble than you.”

That said, Mangelsen notes that the biggest misconception about grizzly bears is that they are bent on attacking humans.

In this image, the Grand Teton Wildlife Brigade – a team that protects the park’s wildlife – gets motorists to clear a lane, giving 399 and her cub Snowy room to go through a ‘bear jam’

This heartwarming photo shows Grizzly 399 and her ‘little quadruped’ in Pilgrim Creek in June 2020, the book reveals

He says: ‘The number one misconception is that they are mean and vicious, and if you get anywhere near a bear, it can attack you, or hurt you, or kill you. This is not really true. It is not. They are as afraid of us as we are of them. They have no interest in killing people or hurting people.’

He continues: ‘They’re not out there looking for people.’

Mangelsen says that 399 – which is about 27 years old, which is unusually old for a grizzly in the wild – has successfully challenged this presumption. He explains: ‘What she did was really make people aware of her specialness, and that she has (all kinds of) emotions.’

“She’s really an incredibly good mother,” he says, noting that once people “see her playing with her cubs,” they realize she’s not the pantomime villain that grizzlies are often portrayed as.

Mangelsen says of grizzly bears: ‘They are as afraid of us as we are of them. They have no interest in killing people or hurting people.

“We are drawn to bears because of their rarity, their charismatic personalities and their status as symbols of wildness,” says the book of this image

In this image, ‘Grizzly 610 (one of 399 adult cubs) and her three cubs pass the historic Brinkerhoff Lodge, on the shores of Jackson Lake, where famous visitors such as John F Kennedy have stayed’, the book reveals

“A furry armada of grizzly bears, 399 and her cubs swim through the jade-green stream of the Snake River,” says the book of this brilliant image

Of this sweet picture, the book says: ‘As the matriarch of a direct bloodline that now includes more than two dozen grizzlies, including full-grown cubs who have in turn become parents themselves, 399 is distinguished in another way: her longevity has given her rare parent status, imparting life lessons not only to bears, but also to people around the world who look up to her.

Mangelson (pictured) describes 399 as a ‘miracle bear’

‘What fascinates me is how emotional these bears can be,’ he says, adding: ‘I know that they feel joy, fear, pain and anger, all those things… they do things that we wouldn’t necessarily do with humans. not related, but they are very much like us.’

In the time he followed the family, Mangelsen saw great hardships it faced.

On occasion, one of 399 cubs was run over by a hit-and-run driver on a highway. He recalled: ‘(399) went out to the center line of the highway and picked up the body of the cub, took it into the trees and laid it next to a log. Then she ran up and down the highway all night, just crying…like a mother loses a child in a grocery store or something.’ He notes that the park employees were forced to wash the distressed 399 off the road to prevent her from being hit by oncoming traffic.

Another traumatic experience that Mangelsen witnessed was when one of 399’s cubs was washed into the creek and she ran down the bank and rescued the cub from the water.

There were also many joyful moments. Mangelsen named one of the cubs ‘Spirit’ because it ‘has a lot of spirit in the sense that it runs around and jumps on mom and hits her in the face, and mom plays with it’.

One of the biggest dangers facing bears is the threat of hunting, which people can do with a special permit, Mangelsen notes, but he says the fame of 399 and her family helps protect the endangered to advocate species. He says: ‘She is a miracle bear.’