Spring is officially here.
When people think about an animal’s appearance – or absence – signifying a particular season, most minds go to Punxsutawney Phil. The groundhog usually lets the world know if they should expect six more weeks of winter or an early spring, and that’s cute and all… but we should probably shift the weight of that weather prediction over to grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park.
You see, Yellowstone always notes when the first grizzly of the year is spotted. After a long winter of hibernation, the bears only come out when its warm enough to get back to their regularly scheduled bear activities. And back on March 9, the beloved national park had it’s first official sighting.
In a post made by Yellowstone, they stated that a biologist had spotted the first grizzly bear of the year, and it was helping itself to a big meal right after it came out of hibernation:
“On March 9, Yellowstone biologists working in the northern part of the park reported seeing the first grizzly bear of the spring season. The bear was observed in the backcountry scavenging on a bull bison carcass… The first reported grizzly bear sighting of 2025 occurred on March 14. In 2024, it occurred on March 3, and in 2022 and 2023, March 7.”
So as you can see, pretty typical timing for the first grizzly to be spotted in Yellowstone.
That’s at least for male grizzly bears. They typically come out of hibernation in March, while the female grizzly bears are known to more commonly come out of hibernation in April and May. And some biologists believed that 2026 would actually be a year where we saw a grizzly come out of it’s long winter’s nap in February, since Yellowstone National Park had a much warmer winter than it typically does.
Instead, this grizzly bear was right on schedule.
Yellowstone National Park also noted in it’s press release that tourists should be very “bear aware” now that a bear has officially been sighted within the park’s boundaries. In addition to staying a certain distant away, the release from Yellowstone gave other tips to staying safe, including:
-Prepare for a bear encounter by carrying bear spray, knowing how to use it and making sure it’s accessible.
-Stay alert.
-Hike or ski in groups of three or more, stay on maintained trails and make noise. Avoid hiking at dusk, dawn or at night.
-Do not run if you encounter a bear.
-Stay 100 yards (91 m) away from black and grizzly bears. Approaching bears within 100 yards is prohibited. Use binoculars, a telescope or telephoto lens to get a closer look.
-Store food, garbage, barbecue grills and other attractants in hard-sided vehicles or bear-proof food storage boxes.
-Report bear sightings and encounters to a park ranger immediately.
And that “stay 100 yards away” guidance might be the most important. Why? As the grizzlies (and black bears) begin waking up from hibernation, they might be more aggressive, and the first thing they’ll be thinking of is… food. Take the bison above, for example. It woke up and was immediately spotted chowing down on a fallen bison.
Tourists, if you are reading this, don’t tempt any hungry bears with food… and make sure not to be bear food yourself.
