Many of you know Raspberry, the female grizzly who spends much of her time on the north side of Yellowstone Lake. She had a brother who was nicknamed White Claw. I was lucky enough to see him many times and he really was the sweetest grizzly bear I’ve ever known. Several of the times I found him he was along the road on the north side of Yellowstone Lake, like his sister. The rangers in the area knew White Claw and knew he was not an aggressive bear so filming him was always a pleasure when the rangers were around. I felt like I was a part of a friendly group who all had one thing in common, we loved White Claw.
One day in early spring we found him digging in deep snow. He dug and dug and often we could only see his rear end. Finally he started bringing up bones. A scapula, a femur, a lower jaw bone, and finally a skull. The skeleton was obviously a small elk but the mystery was why did he expend so much effort to unearth pieces of a skeleton that had absolutely no nutrient value for a bear. I don’t know the answer but I do know if was one of the most unusual events I have ever witnessed.
As he pulled the bones out of the deep snow he looked at them each for a long time as he moved them around to see them from all angles. After he appeared to study one bone he set it aside and went down for another. He did chew on the scapula a little but he just looked at most of them, especially the skull. He studied the skull the longest. During the whole time he seemed very serious but suddenly he lost that serious look, took a nice roll in the snow, and then got up and wandered away.
I still don’t know what the purpose of him digging up the skeleton was. Maybe it just shows us how good a grizzlies’ sense of smell is. Whatever his purpose it was fun and thought provoking to watch.
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What happened to White Claw?
Well I was going to try to avoid that part. I actually don’t remember all of the details although I am sure Jim Yule would know. My memory says he was somewhere near human housing and that a guy came around a corner and surprised him. Although I don’t think White Claw did anything threatening the guy threw his day pack at the bear. The bear smelled food and tore it open and ate what was inside. I believe that was his only “sin.” But I am a little foggy on the details. After that they killed him. I do know this. He did something I didn’t think was a big deal and they killed him for it. I think he was born at the same time as Raspberry.