Yellowstone Bear World

Please don%26#39;t visit this place. We were over in Yellowstone earlier this year, and were hooked into visiting this bear prison whilst we were there, by the enticement of handling and feeding baby bears.

The baby bears are separated from their mothers very early on in their lives, and placed in bare pens with nothing to play with, and nothing to do, but eat and sleep.

Every few hours, tourists like ourselves, pay to feed the babies milk and cake. They make the bears sit to be fed, so that they become controllable by humans. They are fed on cake for the rest of their lives. Only cake.

This makes them fat and extremely docile.

We joined a %26#39;safari%26#39; during the day, where we were driven into the bear park on the back of a high lorry. When we got to the centre of the enclosure, we were encouraged to throw tray loads of cake to the bears, who would sit and beg to be fed. One of them even waved to us.

Bears naturally live on vegetation and the occassional meat meal.

The only saving grace for this place is that it might be the only place you get to have a close encounter with a bear - something I will never forget. They are all captive bred and so know no different.

But does this make it OK?

The plus sides of the park is that they have an excellent petting zoo - lots of room for the animals to excercise and play in a lovely grassy field area. All extremely tame, and these animals appear to be fed healthy, normal food - grains.

They have a great shop with some quality merchandise.

But visiting the centre is supporting the bear mis-treatment, so I would still stand by my advice not to visit.

Apparently, there is another bear sanctuary near to Yellowstone. My sister in law visited it some time ago. It is a place where they put wayward bears from the Yellowstone, after they have been caught eating your lunch, vandalising your car, or even biting someone%26#39;s bum if they get too close. These bears were caged up, and pacing angrily up and down. Wouldn%26#39;t it be better to put them to sleep? They can never be reintroduced to the wild, as they have picked up (what would be to humans) bad habits. They are a very unhappy lot. Needless to say, I didn%26#39;t visit this one.

Yellowstone Bear World

There is a Grizzley and Wolf Discover Center in West Yellowstone.

http://www.grizzlydiscoveryctr.org/

Please do not judge a place until you have been there.

Your comment on putting them to sleep seems so odd..

Yellowstone Bear World

Hi Tripjunkie

Thanks very much for the warning. I am going to Yellowstone next year and might have been tempted.

There is a bear sanctuary in Idaho (they save bear cubs, then release them back into to wild) but I don%26#39;t think they are open to visitors. I have written to them to ask.

Keep enjoying your trips!

Cheers

Bournemouthlady

We went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yelowstone last year. It is not cheap ($9.75 each) but was well worth it as the center is non-profit and the admission if good for 2 days.

My husband has a forest service background in Western Montana and the bears we saw seemed very happy and healthy. They had 2 bears out that were playing and wrestling with each other in a stream that is stocked with fish for them to catch. The 2-acre enclosure looked like a meadow with trees and vegetation. We saw no bears pacing or in a cage. They live in a den building with individual dens.

They swap out bears after they have been out for a certain period of time so the bears that are out can get a break from the crowds. Before they release the new bears, they hide different foods in the enclosure for the bears to find.

Your comments about the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center are completely false. You have obviously never visited the not-for-profit facility or you wouldn%26#39;t have such a negative attitude. For everyone%26#39;s information, the facility is home to 8 grizzly bears who were once permitted to live in the wild, but not anymore because humans were either feeding them and they became ';problem bears'; or their mother%26#39;s were killed. Of the 8 grizzlies, 6 of them came to the center at 6 months old to a year. They were not allowed to be reintroduced into the wild due to restrictions or their inability to survive on their own. They were orphaned at such a young age that they didn%26#39;t have any survival skills. Therefore, they came to live at the Discovery Center. I know from personal experience (I worked there for several years and have since moved on) that every bear living at the Discovery Center is provided with the best living situation possible. Yes, there is an occasional bear who demonstrates restless behavior (i.e. pacing), but this is few and far between. When this behavior is exhibited the highly trained animal staff does everything possible to make the habit and their enrichment more interesting. If you were to visit the Discovery Center on a ';normal'; day, you would witness grizzlies interacting with each other by wrestling or foraging for food (the animal staff hides their food to keep intact their natural instincts to search for food). If you visit the center on a hot summer day in the middle of the afternoon, the bears will probably be sleeping, wouldn%26#39;t you???? This is natural bear behavior. Grizzlies are most active during the morning an evening when the temperature is cooler. This is the same for the wolves, who have a completely different rescue story. Their is a naturalist on site at all times to answer the visitors questions and provided them with very important information about the bears and wolves in Yellowstone. In addition, their is a great museum featuring wonderful information about not only grizzly bears, but other species of bears as well. In essence, every individual who visits the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center will be provided with a 2 day consecutive pass, which will give them access to numerous children programs, education films, staff presentations which includes a live birds of prey show, and other fun activities. Believe me, my opinion in not bias simply because I worked at the center. In fact, I did not seek employment at the center until I visited the facility with my family during one of our wonderful trips to Yellowstone. I fell in love with center prior to working there and I would recommend anyone who is planning a vacation to Yellowstone to make time to visit the Grizzly Discovery Center. Believe me, if you take full advantage of all or even some of the opportunities that the facility provides you with, you won%26#39;t be disappointed.

Well I have seen bear in Yellowstone many times in the past. More recently in Yosemite, Kings Canyon %26amp; an occasional quick glimpse in the Trinity Alps I have no desire to see any Tamed.