Can you spot a family of Yellowstone grizzly bears on the move?

–Editor’s note: A version of this article was first published in June 2024, after the author’s annual spring trip to Yellowstone National Park.

In Yellowstone National Park, a distant view of grizzly bears can be as satisfying as a close-up roadside view because it requires a keen eye and the animals are in a more natural setting.

Can you spot the mother grizzly bear and her three cubs in the image I captured in late May, from a hillside across from the Lamar Valley? (Answer at the bottom of the message.)

The bears grazed on both sides of the highway and created sporadic traffic jams, or “bear jams,” whenever they were visible.

Mama bear was with first-year cubs, or cubs of the year, born during the winter hibernation period. The curious little ones didn’t stray far from mom while I watched from more than 100 meters away.

During this sighting, the bears ran up the side of a hill across the valley after being chased by a herd of bison into a prairie surrounded by sagebrush.

(Mama bear was so preoccupied with foraging with her head down that she didn’t seem to notice how she was leading her cubs towards several bison and their newborn calves.)

The bears were too far away for me to capture a detailed image with my 400-millimeter lens, but I have attached a cropped version of a different image from the same sighting that shows the bears in more detail.

The bears in the top images used for the quiz are circled below.