Famous Wyoming Grizzly Felicia Out of the Den, Playing with Cubs

Grizzly #863 aka Felicia is one of Wyoming's most loved and controversial bears. She's recently been spotted out of the den playing with her two young cubs.

UPDATE: Although the video share was new, I now understand that the video of Felicia and cubs was from last spring and she is still in den with cubs. I regret the error and appreciate the clarification from Greg.

ORIGINAL STORY: Big time respect to Greg Balvin for this tender bear video moment. You rarely get to see a grizzly mom truly playing with her cubs like Felicia is doing here. Both cubs convince her to somersault down the hill with her periodically checking for predators nearby.

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If you're not familiar with Felicia's story, she is a well-known grizzly that tends to frequent roadways near Grand Teton National Park and the Jackson area. Destination Wildlife documented a controversial decision from June of 2021 when wildlife officials decided to haze Felicia and her cubs to try and discourage them from living so close to where humans are.

They explain that mama grizzlies like Felicia sometimes tend to gravitate to where humans are since male grizzlies don't venture close to people areas often. Wyoming Public Media reported that officials considered the two week hazing of Felicia successful so no additional attempts to relocate her for now.

It's an interesting dynamic for a bear to seek the presence of people to protect her cubs from other bears. Hopefully officials can maintain that delicate balance so we can continue to witness natural mom moments like Greg was able to capture in this latest video share.