Incredibly Rare Sighting Of Mother Grizzly Bear With Five Cubs Caught On Camera In Yellowstone National Park

A historic sighting at Yellowstone National Park.

Until June of this year, the most cubs that a single grizzly sow has been spotted with is four. But wildlife photographer Stan Mills might have just changed the record books at Yellowstone, because the breathtaking video he captured shows a single mom (who likely works two jobs, loves her kids and never stops) corralling and traveling with five bear cubs.

Linda Veress, a spokesperson for Yellowstone National Park, told KKTV that this sighting might be unprecedented if all of the cubs belong to the mother in the clip:

“Five cubs in a litter are the most we have ever observed in the park, at least from 1959 to present (the period of the park’s history we have good records for). In Yellowstone, the average litter size for grizzly bears is 2 cubs. Approximately 49% of cubs survive their first year.”

Those are some incredible odds to have beat if all five of these cubs belong to the grizzly mother in the video. In the clip, the mother can be seen guiding the full crew of cubs through a basin in Yellowstone National Park. She keeps an eye out – and seems to spot the photographer – while her cubs wrestle and run around in the background.

It’s hard to confirm whether or not all five cubs belong to the mother, or if some stragglers simply decided to join in with the mother and her existing cubs. Though the national park can’t straight out say all five cubs are hers… it sure does look like they are when you watch the clip. At the very least, she’s the brave grizzly sow that stepped up to take care of all of them.

Stan Mills posted the video to his YouTube account (that’s dedicated to covering Yellowstone wildlife) and captioned it with this message:

“This video contains an extremely rare encounter with a mom grizzly and five cubs. This is my video recorded on June 5, 2024 at the Specimen Ridge/Agate Creek trail junction. I don’t think there is any other video of a grizzly with five cubs in Yellowstone National Park.”