Thread by @tsu_namee

I wrote a lot of tiny essays for #fatbearweek but the one most special for me was about 435 Holly and 503. I am tender to their story, which is about loss and grief and adoption and motherhood.

Ty for letting me tell it here in its own thread:

Not only is 435 Holly one of the oldest bears at Katmai and a former Fat Bear Champion (2019), she is one of the most prolific and experienced mothers at Brooks River. She has given birth to five litters now, and seven bears call her Mom.

In 2009, however, she had a one cub litter and that cub was killed in front of her by an adult male bear.

The natural world is full of beauty, and it is also dangerous, selfish, and cruel. Bringing a child into a place you could lose them is one of the scariest and bravest things a mother can do.

In Holly's entire reproductive history she follows the same pattern: she has another litter almost immediately after she emancipates her cub(s). Except in 2009, when her cub was killed.

After that incident, Holly did not have a cub in 2010, or even in 2011, 2012, or 2013.

I assume it is seen as a random blip in Holly's otherwise liberal reproductive rhythm. No article I’ve read has mentioned it. There is no scientific reason for Holly to have taken such a substantial (for her) break from mothering.

She eventually gave birth in 2014.

That same year, a different mother, 402, abandoned her yearling (a 1.5 year old cub). The yearling was seen crying alone in a tree for over ten hours.

Although he was under the age when bears are normally emancipated, the park assigned him a number, since his independence would now classify him as a subadult. This is why they call him 503 Cubadult.

About a month later, 503 Cubadult was seen spending time with 435 Holly and her ½ year old cub (719 Princess). Not long after, he was seen nuzzling and sharing fish with the family, playing with Princess, and nursing from Holly.

Holly had adopted him.

Adoptions in the bear species are extraordinarily rare, and there has never been a documented case of it before or since at Brooks River.

Bears are sort of rugged cowboy-like animals, and they mostly work alone.

There's a theory that a bear might, just possibly, potentially, probably not, but ok maybe, adopt another bear's cub if they were extended family, since the survival of, say, a nephew, might still pass on their genes.

But there is no known genetic kinship between 435 Holly and 503 Cubadult. There is no scientific reason for their blended family to exist.

So, yes, Holly is fat. But she is more than a bear who is heavy; she is a bear who knows heavy.

She witnessed the traumatic loss of her child, and she sat with that loss for five years. Anyone who knows grief knows you don't need a tree to feel stuck somewhere for hours. Anyone who knows grief knows what it's like to cry someone's name and never have them return.

Why did 435 Holly adopt 503 Cubadult? Everyone asks; no one knows.

They were not related.

And yet: they could relate.