May, Mother Grizzly Bears, and Family Breakup

May is a fabulous time to view grizzly bears in Yellowstone! 

In this video a mother grizzly and her two 2.5-year-old cubs play and wrestle in a small snow patch on Yellowstone’s famed Northern Range. This level of somewhat violent play may be the beginnings of mom pushing the young ones out on their own. It is time. 

Late May through early June is the time for them to incorporate all she has taught them over the last two summers together. Then, they can move along into being independent bears making a living out on the Yellowstone landscape. It’s also time for her to enter into her next breeding cycle and be courted by nearby males, which is dangerous for cubs. It’s an exciting time to be here! 

This day we saw more than a dozen bears  – along with many other great sightings including wolves, owls, eagles, coyotes, moose, sheep, bison calves, and so much more – which is what visitors can expect when booking a trip with us in springtime, particularly early May through the start of June.

Click here to watch our video, which was taken while on tour with some wonderful guests, of a mother grizzly starting to chase off her cubs: https://vimeo.com/828851247?share=copy

This video was taken with an iPhone 14 through a Swaravski Optik spotting scope using an Ollin Company magnetic phone scope adaptor system. The Ollin system has a total game changer for us as a company. Without it this video would not have happened. Thank you to the crew at Ollin for the amazing products that help us do our job better and help our clients capture high-quality video of their wildlife sightings!

Emil McCain, Owner/Operator Yellowstone Wild Tours