Bear #88

Every August, like clockwork, Bear #88, weighing in at 375 pounds, made his way through Pelican Valley and into Fishing Bridge Campground. 

At the time, this black grizzly bear had never hurt anyone while raiding a few campsites every summer and always resulted in his capture and return to the backcountry wearing a radio collar.

On August 12, 1983, it was my turn to monitor a bear trap in Fishing Bridge Campground we had baited with slices of cantaloupe from the kitchen of Lake Hotel. I parked my truck about 50 feet from the trap in I-Loop and rolled the windows down and waited to capture this repeat offender.

It was just a few minutes after midnight when I heard the loud clang of metal on metal.  The trap had been triggered.  I started the engine and drove slowly toward the trap not knowing for sure if Bear #88 was actually inside the steel culvert. 

Before getting out of my truck, I aimed my flashlight toward the trap and could see the reflection of his eyes staring me down.  I had him!

As I walked toward the trap, he started pacing back and forth.  It was then I noticed the steel pegs for locking the cage door were not in place.  Not good.  If he hit the cage door he might be able to lift it and get out. And I would be his next meal on wheels.

My first thought. “RETREAT!”  And that’s exactly what I did.  Back to the truck and on the radio calling for help.

Within a few minutes, three Lake District Rangers were on the scene to cover me while I climbed on top of the bear trap and forced the metal pegs into open slots that locked the cage door down.

A short time later, Bear #88 was on the road again and driven back to Pelican Valley where he was released and told to stay out of Dodge.

But he didn’t. Bear #88 seemed to like the Fishing Bridge Area and was trapped 3 more times before park management decided it best to euthanize him due to his nuisance activity in or near developments and campgrounds.

Pris Gale, a National Park Volunteer, and I transporetd Bear #88 in August of 1984 from Fishing Bridge to Park Headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs where he was then taken to a state wildlife lab in Bozeman, Montana where he was euthanized.

Jerry Mernin who was the Snake River District Ranger at the time wrote about Bear #88 in his book, “Yellowstone Ranger.”

In his book, Mernin described Bear #88 as a predatory grizzly and speculated that this same bear killed twenty-five-year-old Brigitta Fredenhagen of Basel, Switzerland, near a game trail in Pelican Valley, and a few days later pulled a 12-year-old boy out of his tent while still sleeping in his sleeping bag at a Grant Campground site. The boy fell out of the bag without the bear noticing then dropped the bag and disappeared.

I was one of the Rangers who responded from the Lake Village Area that night and drive through the Grant Campground warning visitors that there was a bear in the campground and to move into their vehicles if they were sleeping on the ground.

After Bryan was given first aid for a bite on his right upper arm and a single puncture wound under his right wrist, I transported him to Lake Hospital. 

As I drove to the hospital with Bryan sitting in the front seat of the patrol car, he and I spoke about school starting up again. I told him I was a school teacher when I wasn’t rangering.

He smiled at me and said, “I’ll have a story for my teacher and friends about what I did this summer.”