On the way to Yellowstone National Park early Tuesday morning, a Cody photographer saw a dead grizzly bear cub that had been hit by a vehicle, and then he found two more.
Watch grizzly cubs killed story here:
Tim O'Leary has been taking wildlife pictures for about 15 years and owns a photography business in Cody.
“Oh, I love it,” O’Leary said. “I do it all the time. It's a big stress reliever for sure. ”
He has shot pictures of all sorts of wildlife, keeping his distance through his big lenses.
“Their eyelids opening and closing, twitching in the muscles,” said O’Leary. “You see the steam of their breath coming out of an elk bugling. It's just incredible to experience things like that. ”
But at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, on his way to take pictures, he saw something disturbing.
O'Leary spotted a grizzly cub about the size of a large dog on the shoulder of the road on the North Fork Highway about 30 miles west of Cody.
“I was very concerned about getting out of the vehicle because I knew nothing about the sow,” O’Leary said.
O'Leary called his friend at the Wyoming Game & Fish Department (WGFD).
They could not find the mother, but with the help of dogs found two more cubs that had been hit and killed.
“There were a lot of car parts on the highway and blood,” O’Leary said.
Because of this, O'Leary does not want to share any of the pictures he took of the scene on the highway.
A man who works with O'Leary's friend at the WGFD said no one did anything wrong.
“I'm sure it was a surprise situation, bear crossing the road quickly,” said Dan Thompson, supervisor of the department’s large carnivore section.
Thompson says wildlife getting hit on roads is common.
And while bears have been seen a lot this year, it's not so common for grizzlies to get hit on the highways.
“Feeding more actively during the day, and they're just more active this time of year as well,” Thompson said. “So it was a combination of those factors that probably led to it. ”
And Thompson says it's a good reminder to come around blind curves a bit slower and be careful in the fall.
“As we get deeper into the fall, there's going to be more and more movement, and that's more possibility for wildlife collisions,” said Thompson.
“You really don't want to see anything die,” said O’Leary. “It's part of nature. I accept it. But you don't want to see it.”
O’Leary and officials say to fight the urge to check on injured wildlife and instead call the authorities.
