Brooks Bear Spotlight: 854 Divot
854 Divot's Katmai Fan Wiki Page
Note: This post will talk about, and link to a blog post with images of, a wolf-snare-trap injury that 854 Divot sustained in 2014 -- as well as the successful rescue efforts by various National Park Service staff members. There will be no direct images of her injury in this post, though her scar is visible in the one photo of her I have included.
Overview
854 Divot was born in 2002 to 216 Marilyn, and her father was 24 BB. Unlike many bears in the Brooks River area, these relationships are not speculation -- her parentage has actually been confirmed with DNA analysis!
She has had 4 known litters of cubs: in 2013, 2016, 2020, and 2023. She is believed to be the mother of bears 600, 904, 905, 906, 353, and 354, though of these bears only 354 is still known to be in the Brooks River area. 854 Divot was last seen in 2023.
Identification
Official NPS photo, taken by C Rohdenberg on July 1, 2022
854 Divot is a medium-sized sow who is blonde in the early summer and medium-brown in the fall. In July she is often identifiable by a shed patch on her forehead, and since 2014 she has also been identifiable by the scar that encircles her neck. When she was a young bear, she made a habit of digging small holes -- aka divots -- into the gravel at the mouth of Brooks River, and this is how she earned her nickname. Young bears, as they are learning about and exploring their environments, often develop behaviors that appear odd to us humans; 854 Divot and the small holes she dug were certainly no exception.
Behavior
Over the years, her relationship to the Brooks River area has varied significantly. Some years she was there every day, and others she only stopped by very briefly. Some years she only appeared in the early summer, and others she only appeared in the fall. We don't know why her behavior varies so much -- especially compared to other brown bears, who generally settle in to specific rhythms and patterns. We will, in all likelihood, never know why she does this or where she goes when she isn't around. She is a wonderful example of how little we actually see on the brown bear live cameras at explore.org, and how little we understand about why brown bears act in the ways that they do.
854 Divot is also one of the few bears in the Brooks River area that has learned to associate anglers with food. If she sees anglers in the area, she will wait on the shore until the angler has caught a fish, at which point she quickly approaches -- hoping to snag a low-effort snack. As such, anglers at Brooks River must be careful to not fish if Divot is in the area. Every fish a bear takes from a person increases their association of humans with food, which is dangerous for both humans and bears.
The Wolf Snare Incident
Note: the blog post linked in this section contains images of 854 Divot's injury, as well as photos of when she was tranquilized and recovering from being tranquilized, which may be upsetting to some people.
For all of the other interesting things about her, 854 Divot is best known because on July 28, 2014, some observers noticed that she had something strange cinched around her neck. Upon closer inspection, the park rangers and wildlife biologists at Katmai National Park determined it to be a wire snare; specifically, one intended for hunting wolves. Though she had broken free of the trap, the wire snare was still wrapped around -- and cutting into -- her neck. Without intervention, 854 Divot would almost certainly die from this injury; and her yearling cub, being only 1.5 years old and reliant on her mother for food and protection, likely would as well.
Brown bears have an incredible pain tolerance. They are predatory megafauna that are fought by essentially no other species but their own, and the biggest and most dominant brown bears often end their lives covered in many scars, some of which are shocking in their size and severity. 854 Divot was still walking around, still fishing, and still doing her best to care for her cub. But her time was limited, and no one knew when it would run out. The staff at Katmai knew they had to act fast.
The next few days at Brooks Camp were a whirlwind. They had to find 854 Divot, keep track of her, acquire tranquilizer darts, and then not only find someone who was certified to handle tranquilizer and dart bears -- something no staff at Katmai could do -- but also fly that person in, which is no small feat to do on short notice when you are in one of the most remote places on earth. To quote Mike Fitz, from his NPS Blog Post Removing a Wire Snare from 854 Divot :
Calls were made to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Alaska Department of Fish and Game offices in King Salmon, but their biologists were unable to assist. Luckily Grant Hilderbrand, a wildlife biologist for the National Park Service, was available. However, he lives in Anchorage and couldn't get to Brooks Camp until mid-day on July 29. We had the staff to assist Grant and he had the experience to tranquilize and handle the bear, but we didn't know whether or not 854 Divot would appear again and give us the opportunity to tranquilize her and remove the snare. Katmai is a big place with much room for bears to roam. After all, most bears were finding fishing in the Brooks River too difficult. Consequently, almost all bears have moved to other streams to fish for salmon. As we awaited Grant's arrival, our plan was to let 854 Divot come to us and track her if she moved away. We had no other choice. We had to get lucky.
The entire blog post is worth reading, though obviously it is likely to be upsetting to some folks. On July 30, 2014, they successfully tranquilized Divot and safely removed the wire snare, saving both her and her yearling cub. In time, Divot recovered from her injury without complications, and her and her cub have both gone on to live their best bear lives -- though Divot will always have a scar from the incident.
To answer a few likely questions about this event ahead of time:
This sort of direct intervention is not something that Katmai Rangers generally do -- unless, as was the case here, they are rectifying harm that has been caused by another human being. Thankfully, incidents like this are exceedingly rare.
We do not know where 854 Divot encountered this wolf snare. If it was placed on National Park land, it was illegal, as hunting is illegal there. But brown bears wander quite far, so it is entirely possible that the trap was not placed on National Park land.
Wolf snares are legal in Alaska, with permit requirements and some other restrictions. While hunting using traps has been a part of human history for millennia, this incident is a good example of the sorts of accidental knock-on effects that such traps can have, because they are not species specific -- you can never be sure that you will only catch the sort of animal that you are attempting to catch.
Additionally, snare traps are used for fur collection; they are deployed in the winter when bears are hibernating. It is likely that the trap was placed and then either lost, left behind, or forgotten about. This incident is a good example of the harm that human carelessness can cause to the animals that we share our land with.
In Conclusion
854 Divot is a fascinating bear with a unique life history. Although she was last seen in 2023 and I do not expect her to return to the cams, I will not be surprised if she does turn up -- she is not so old that I presume her to have passed away, and she may just be off somewhere else for now. If she ever does return, I will be far from the only person that is very happy to see her. And if she doesn't turn up, she will live on not only through her many children, but also in the many memories we have of her time spent with us.