She struggles to survive on a daily basis trying to make a living – and now she has the added pressure of raising her young ones in the busy Bow Valley.
The celebrity 22-year-old grizzly bear 64 constantly defies the odds in the Rocky Mountain park where bears continue to die at the hands of humans.
This land of rock and ice is tough for a grizzly under normal circumstances, but she miraculously manages to eke out a living on this busy landscape, all the while navigating train tracks, roads and a bustling tourist town.
“She’s what I would describe as the perfect bear for surviving in the Bow Valley,” said Steve Michel, a human-wildlife conflict specialist for Banff National Park.
“She is tolerant of humans and human infrastructure, yet she does a good job of maintaining a necessary distance from people and skirting around facility areas whenever possible,” he added.
“She has the necessary level of habituation she needs in order to navigate and survive on this landscape, but not so extremely habituated to be jeopardizing her future survival.”
Bear 64 was first captured as part of a research project in June 1999. She has an ear tag labeled 114, but she is referred to as 64.
She was essentially unknown to wildlife managers back in 1999, but a tooth taken back then put her at 10 years of age.
It was determined at that time she had not yet had cubs, but in the following years she has produced two litters of cubs for sure, possibly three.
Studies have shown that grizzly bears in the Rocky Mountains have one of the longest intervals between producing cubs of any other bear population in North America.
A gap in information from 2002 to 2006 on bear 64 means wildlife officials are uncertain whether she produced cubs then, although they suspect she may have.
But in 2006, she emerged from her winter’s hibernation with two cubs in tow. In 2009, when the cubs were three-and-a-half years old, they separated from their mother.
Sadly, both of her female cubs have since been killed at the hands of humans. Bear 109 was hit on the train tracks last year and bear 108 was killed on the highway last week.
In 2010, she was without offspring, but she had a very good year feasting on an excellent berry crop and gained a lot of weight heading into hibernation.
Through remote video cameras and staff observations in June of that year, wildlife officials knew she was spending a lot of time with several male grizzly bears, and one in particular.
“We knew she was engaging in breeding behaviour,” said Michel. “We were optimistic she would arrive with cubs this spring – and we were all delighted when she arrived with three.”
Local bear researcher Colleen Campbell describes bear 64 as an amazing bear.
“She uses this landscape that’s heavily populated by humans without being seduced by us – and it takes a really special bear not to respond to that,” she said.
“She just quietly goes about her work and it’s really hard work for females to raise their cubs. We’re really blessed she produced three cubs because it doesn’t happen often.”
Campbell said she hopes 64 stays alive long enough to teach her new cubs how to be successful here, too.
“I think we’re really lucky she’s managed to stay alive and has the bear wisdom she has,” she said. “We’re also lucky she had another litter this year because we’re killing off females left, right and centre.”
Most recently, bear 64 has been seen hanging out in populated areas in the valley, including roadside areas where she is feasting on lush vegetation with her three young cubs.
While so visible, she is being constantly harassed as people are getting dangerously close to her and her cubs in their quest for that once-in-a-lifetime photo. In some cases, people are deliberately going out in search of her.
Although this female grizzly has proven she’s tolerant of people, there is a fear that the young cubs could become habituated to human presence and vehicles.
Parks Canada officials urge people to give her space to raise her cubs – and ideally keep a distance of more than 100 metres – and respect she’s a resident of this valley, too.
“We want people to give them the space they need,” said Michel.
Melanie Percy, the biologist who originally captured bear 64 in 1999, said she’s thrilled this bear is still alive and successfully reproducing.
She said she hopes grizzly bear 64 will eventually move to a safer area of the national park for good, to a wilder area outside of the Bow Valley.
She said the deaths of her offspring, 108 and 109, shows just how hard it is for grizzly bears to make a living in the major transportation corridor.
“She seems to have pretty much figured out how to navigate the Bow Valley,” she said. “But there are so many different variables and anything can happen.”
Every year, bear 64 uses the area around Vermilion Lakes, the Sundance and Marsh Loop, and other areas on the outskirts of Banff where she has become an expert at hunting elk calves each spring.
In the summer months, she typically moves into higher elevations like Bourgeau and Healy Pass, before heading back to the valley bottom, to anywhere there’s a good buffalo berry crop.
“She frequently encounters people, but doesn’t have any aggressive incidents,” said Michel. “She strikes a good balance of keeping an appropriate distance from humans and infrastructure.”
While 64 is 22 years old, Michel said the lives of some female grizzlies in Banff have spanned three decades, including one bear that was known to give birth to a cub when she was 30.
Michel said 64 could survive for another decade, but she’s certainly getting to the upper end of the expected reproductive stage of her life.
He said she’s already exceeded what is considered a normal lifespan for a grizzly in the Bow Valley because she’s exposed to threats of the transportation corridor.
“But, when we look at it from a park-wide basis, where some of those more lethal conditions don’t exist, we would reasonably expect her to last another eight to 10 years,” he said.
“The most concerning thing, however, is the mortality threats she faces in the Bow Valley are constantly there, and although she’s navigated well in the last 22 years, she has to continue to do that.”
One of the best things bear 64 has going for her is she’s figured out how to use the underpasses and overpasses to safely cross the highway.
“I don’t think it would be unfair to describe her as the poster bear for our crossing structures and we have many photos of her using those structures,” said Michel.
“We know she taught her last litter of offspring how to use them, and we know she will continue to do the same with her new litter of cubs of this year.”
By all accounts, 64 shouldn’t make it, but the ultimate fairy tale ending for this grizzly is for her to die naturally of old age.
Parks Canada’s own report shows there were 64 known grizzly bear deaths in the mountain national parks between 1990 and 2009, 49 of which were human caused and more than half of the bears were females.
“If we could have a female that continues to reproduce cubs and die of old age within the Bow Valley, that would be an extraordinary story,” said Michel.
“It would be an amazing story for us and a real testament to her and her ability to navigate this landscape – and it would be highly unusual.”
