Photographer captures first-ever sow grizzly with five cubs in Yellowstone

BILLINGS - A Montana photographer and wildlife guide made history recently by capturing video of the first known grizzly bear sow to have five cubs in Yellowstone National Park.

But more than historic, West Yellowstone resident Carolyn Golba says the moment was truly awe-inspiring for those wanting to view wildlife from a safe distance.

“I was in the Lamar Valley and heard there was something going on in the little America area of the park,” said Golba.

She says she set up her camera and ended up capturing something incredible.

“And I had people standing behind me and as those cubs kept going over those logs everyone behind me kept going one, two, three, four five,” she said.

She watched the mama grizzly and her five cubs for 45 minutes and the moment has since gone down in history.

“There were some people there, that I know, that called in a ranger to verify that yeah, he was seeing five cubs,” she said.

Golba says the mother grizzly of five is not known to biologists and not collared. But she says perhaps she could be the next big grizzly bear draw to Yellowstone National Park.

Something she hopes to capture again real soon.

“I do go back out there, to that area, hoping to see her but I haven’t seen her since,” she said.

Golba has been going to Yellowstone National Park for over thirty years and opened her guide company, known as Wild Serenity Wildlife Tours, just a few years ago.