Grizzly and Wolf Wildlife Discovery Center -The Bears

Today Richard and I took the littles to the Grizzly and Wolf Wildlife Discovery Center.  I have heard wonderful things about it so we were excited to go check it out, even though the high today was only supposed to get to 29 degrees.  We waited until about noon hoping it would be warmer.  We saw amazing things.  They have nine bears that they rotate out into the viewing area often.  All of the bears are ones who were either injured, or who got a taste for human food and had to be taken in to protect the population of people in the areas they were from.

Momma bear and her cubs!

Imagine having this couch in your play room!

The first two bears we saw were Sam and Illi.  Brother and Sister from Alaska.

They have a wonderful activity for the kids called Keeper Kids.  After a 30 minute learning session, they clear the bears out of the play area and the kids get to go in and help hide food for the bears to find. This keeps the bears active and engaged.  So we signed up Annalina and Joseph and they ended up being the only kids that day.  In the summer they have groups of 30, so it was nice that our kids got so much one on one attention!  So they got to learn about bears, then the animal keepers rang a bell and the bears left through three solid steel doors and into their individual "homes".  Once it was verified that ALL 9 bears were in their own rooms and that the habitat was completely empty(they take safety very seriously), the keepers took the kids in with buckets of food.  They hid piles under rocks and inside wood piles.  When they were done, they came back out and four new bears were released.  Two adults(Spirit and Coram) and two cubs(Roosevelt and Grant). They went running for the hidden food and it was fun for the kids to watch them find the treats they had so carefully hidden for them!  Our tickets are good for two days, so we are planning to go back tomorrow to do it again and to see the wolf pack feeding.

Under the rock.  We cheered for the bear that found this stash!

One of the cubs.  Their mother was killed before they learned how to survive in the wild.