Grizzlies!

From the highway to the lodge where I'll be staying during my Wolf Expedition, I saw a sign for Grizzly Bears! so of course I stopped to check it out :)

From experience, I know these kinds of places can turn out to be rather cheesy. However I was pleased to discover it was legit, not cheesy. It turned out to be a grizzly bear rescue facility, where bears in captivity that are mistreated or otherwise in unfortunate situations that cannot be released into the wild, are taken in and allowed to live out their lives in relative comfort.

There is a reasonably large play area for the bears which is also the viewing area. The bears are anywhere from 20' to 100' away from you, with no bars of fence between you and the bears (instead there is a deep ditch they cannot climb or jump across), so an ideal photo-taking opportunity. I had been to a similar facility in Oregon for wild cats such as tigers and leopards, but they were all behind chain link fences, which ruined any photos.

During my visit "Jake" and Maggi" were out in the play area. Seeing them was a wonderful experience, I definitely got the feeling they were happy and being well cared for.

"Jake" - a handsome-looking 10 year-old male grizzly.  Had I encountered a grizzly this close in the wild, I likely would not have survived it!

One question many people asked is why are the bears not hibernating? Well these bears were neutered to prevent them from reproducing (they want to reduce the number of bears in captivity, not increase it). And this apparently prevents them from hibernating.

Jake posing

Besides Jake and Maggi they have 3 more grizzlies including the most famous one, a 1000 lb behemoth named Brutus.

Jake and Maggi

Can we humans learn anything from grizzly bears?  Here's how Casey (owner of this facility) answered that:

Insight from Brutus: If it is physically possible, then it is done. If not, it isn’t. After weighing a boulder in at one ton, we used a tractor to lift it to place a piece of salmon under it. Soon after, Brutus caught the scent of the salmon and walked to the boulder. In one swift move, he pushed the boulder to the side and happily devoured the salmon. Then it dawned on me as I stood next to my friend. He doesn’t worry much; he is not handicapped by his mind. If his body isn’t capable of doing it, then that is his only limitation. He does not sit there and contemplate, or make excuses; he just does all he can. Then goes and takes a nap in the sunshine. How great would it be if we could all live that way?  --Casey Anderson

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