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Here's a Yellowstone Bear Story: Grizzly Sow Has Quads!

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Published Date

August 20, 2010

It's not unusual for grizzly bear sows to give birth to two cubs, and on occasion three, but when was the last time you heard of a sow having quadruplets? Well, it happened in Yellowstone National Park this year.

Thanks to a Tweeted story by "Yosemitegal," aka Beth Pratt, about Yellowstone's bear populations this year, a little searching has turned up the following videos from YouTube featuring the sow and her cubs.

The footage in the following collection shows just how inquisitive and playful bear cubs can be.

This first video, obviously a nicely produced piece, surfaced back in May:

This video, shot in June, shows the bears aren't timid...and that park visitors can be a bit foolish in how close they get to grizzlies:

This video, also made in June, shows mom isn't above giving one of her cubs a piggyback ride:

And here's Yosemitegal's footage, shot near Swan Lake Flats, also in June:

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Comments

Submitted by Connie Hopkins on August 20, 2010 - 8:36am.

She is beautiful, what magnificent creatures! I hope that all 4 grow up, what are their chances?


Submitted by admin on August 20, 2010 - 9:36am.

I had to watch all the videos. Thanks for sharing the story.


Submitted by admin on August 20, 2010 - 11:24am.

They look great. Bears are beautiful animals, thanks for showing the videos.


Submitted by admin on August 20, 2010 - 8:07pm.

If these were taken in June and May, have ther been any recent sightings of them? Is it possible a bear would ever take on anothers cubs?


Submitted by admin on August 20, 2010 - 10:13pm.

We were lucky enough to see these bears on vacation in late June. Area we saw them looks like same area as in the video.


Submitted by admin on August 20, 2010 - 10:57pm.

What a blessing that all 4 of these youngsters are surviving. You can definitely see the size difference of each one in these videos. With nature, normally the smallest is the weakest and it doesn't survive. But all four are very active and show no signs of being weaker than other. It is really nice to see that nature, when left alone, takes care of itself.

I pray that they will all make it through the winter months. The Sow is definitely a good mother. Many questions come to mind: How old is she? Has she had multi-births before this one? Did her other offspring live?

Thank you so much for sharing. This park is one of my favorites. I have been so many times, it feels like home when I visit. I always enjoy your articles about Yellowstone.


Submitted by admin on August 21, 2010 - 9:45am.

So glad to see positive info about the Yellowstone bears. It has been a sad year so far and these are a big pick-me-up. Thank you for posting them.


Submitted by admin on September 4, 2010 - 9:58pm.

Really enjoyed seeing the videos, so neat to see 4 of them hope they make it to adult age, these are truly beautiful animals, we were just at yellowstone in august this year, it truly is a magiacl place.


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