Expressions of grief have poured in from around the world since Grizzly Bear 399 was killed last weekend just outside Yellowstone National Park. It may have been the darkness, it may have been her age (28) and it may have been the speed limit (70 mph), but the most photographed and popular mamma grizzly in the world was hit and killed by a car while crossing the road with her cub Spirit.
Her legion of followers are heartbroken.
She was adored by the many thousands of tourists who had watched her raise her cubs in the park and gave expression to the love, care and compassion we attribute to mamas of any species. Maybe that is why so many felt that loss so deeply SA国际影视传媒� she personified all of those attributes we try to find in good human beings.
It doesnSA国际影视传媒檛 matter that this accident happened in the U.S.; animals, like empathy, know no borders and we are all concerned about the worldSA国际影视传媒檚 wildlife population which is under increasing threat from the encroaching human population and climate change. We can find refuge in our homes or flee in our vehicles, but animals battle the elements on their own.
Yet they are not much different from us.
One of the most poignant photographs that emerged from the wildfires that ravaged the NWT last summer was that of a black bear peering out from the charred remains of the forest that had once been its home. It was difficult to tell whether he was black or charred too, but we were aware of how forlorn he must have felt.
In Sachs Harbour last week, community members described how two polar bears had wandered into town and put people there on high alert. When one was seen peeking in a kitchen window, residents took action. They jumped on their snowmobiles chasing him out of town where it was shot and killed.
Once skinned, its hunters found the bear had been starving; there was no food in its belly nor fat to help it through lean times. The absence of sea ice is making life difficult for hunters of any species.
Finally, we have had two individuals over the summer who were bitten by wolves close to Yellowknife. One was out hiking with her dog near Vee Lake and the other was a tourist on an Aurora hunt close to town. Hunger is making wildlife behaviour even more unpredictable.
In the Colville Lake area, there is a battle brewing between the GNWT and the community in vying for control of a caribou herd which is tottering on extinction. Not only are the animals dealing with increased pressures from infestation and predation, they are also trying to survive cruel hunting practices which sees excess hunting and meat wastage at a time when the herd is at the tipping point.
In an interview with CBC recently, Joseph Kochon, chief negotiator for the Behdzi Ahda First Nation, said, SA国际影视传媒淲hat we see happening is that people are going out of the boundary line and shooting as much as they can in a short time period and sometimes taking more than what they need and there's nobody really overseeing that."
Wildlife cannot get a break, even though their survival is far more precarious than our own. We know that the existence of all life is intrinsically linked, yet we too often fail to give wildlife the care and respect it deserves.
I had the opportunity to attend a climate change conference recently in which representatives from most levels of the NWT government and from Indigenous and youth groups were present. We discussed in detail many of the pressures that NWT communities and people are under in the face of climate change. However, what we did not address to the same degree was the impacts on wildlife whose very existence determines are own..
If people are so distressed because of the death of Grizzly Bear 399, it is because she embodied so much of the struggles our animal populations face and we see ourselves reflected in her. Such perseverance in the face of hardship. She loved like we loved. She cared about her young as we do. She struggled to survive as so many of us do too, and she did it for 28 years under sometimes impossible circumstances. We see our own precarious existence reflected in her and when we lost her, we lost a little piece of ourselves.
Rest easy, Grizzly Bear 399. Take all the time you need.
SA国际影视传媒擭ancy Vail is a longtime Yellowknifer concerned with social justice.
