10/19/2026
Rangers at Katmai National Park in Alaska had known bear 854 for years. They called her Divot. On July 28, 2014, Divot came down the beach at Brooks Camp with her yearling cub, and around her neck was a wire snare, pulled tight.
The wire had already cut about an inch deep all the way around. Left alone, the snare would most likely kill her.
Katmai almost never captures its bears, and nobody at the camp was certified to dart one. So the park called in Grant Hilderbrand, a wildlife biologist with the National Park Service in Anchorage. For 2 days the team followed mother and cub on foot and by boat along the shore of Naknek Lake. On July 30, the bears stepped out of the forest about 100 yards away, and Hilderbrand fired the dart.
The cub never ran off. Bawling, it stayed close while Katmai biologist Sherri Anderson cut the wire away with bolt cutters. The team cleaned the wound and dragged the 400 pound bear up into the grass so she couldn't roll into the lake while she slept.
About 3 hours later, Divot stood up and nursed her cub. A few days after that, rangers saw Divot and her cub playing along the Brooks River again.
