9 Aug - Montana Grizzly Encounter

9 Aug
This mornings activities were in yesterdays BLOG entry which I did this morning...LOL!  Lets hope this post goes better.

After lunch we headed west of Livingston on I-90 about 12 miles to the Montana Grizzly Encounter.

Per their web site:  The Montana Grizzly Encounter was founded in 2004.  It provides a spacious and natural home for rescued grizzly's, and a place the public can come and learn about the bears.  The bears located here were born in unfortunate captive situations and could never be released into the wild.  They are cared for and safe here, and people have the opportunity to learn about the creatures without cages or bars.  They provide this opportunity free of charge to school groups, and for a nominal fee to the general public.  They receive no government funding, and supplemented only by donations and entrance fees.

We arrived and paid our entrance fee.  We parked outside the compound and walked in through the gate.  They have an area with some goats for the kids to pet and feed.  As soon as we walked up they thought it was dinner time.  Disappointed when we had no treats, they ignored us and grazed on the local grass!

You walk through the gift shop and into the large wildlife area which is fenced off by an electric fence system.  There are very tall concrete walls on three sides to keep the public out and the bears in. 

There is a narrator present and she briefs everyone on the details of the bears and then answers any questions from the public.  It was very interesting and we learned a lot.  There are also some posters that provide information.  They also have apparently tested out some coolers and the results are on display!

They have three pairs of bears at this facility:  Brutus and Bella.  Sheena and Jake.  Maggie and Montana.  They are rotated in and out of the wildlife area on a three hour schedules.  Only two bears are in the area at a time.  The others are in their lair eating or resting.  Brutus and Bella were out playing in one of the ponds and chewing tree branches like they were tooth picks!

Chewing on this tree branch!

Chillin'

Ride em' Cowboy!

They know who their caretakers are.  The owner apparently took in one of the the bears when it was very young and raised it from a cub in his home.  When it was old enough it was brought here.  The bears were behind a very large rock and we could not tell what they were doing.  The owner shouted at the bears and asked what they were up to and if they were digging holes.  The bears immediately reacted to his voice and came out from behind the rock, paying attention like children might!  It was funny!  They were like, "Um, ah no, dad we are not digging holes.  We promise!!"

I asked if they would be released to the wild at some point, but they said they would not since they were brown bears and have never lived in the wild they would not survive.  The black bears, however are released back into the wild. They went into detail explaining the differences between black, brown and polar bears.  They talked about their diets and about hibernation which not all bears do if food is accessible.  If it is not, their systems cause them to hibernate and wake up towards the  end of January time frame.  If they are female and pregnant the babies are born after hibernation.

It was fun to see the bears this close and personal, but learning about them was really the most impressive.  The narrator did a great job answering our questions.  Our grand kids would really enjoy this too.

That's it for today.  We recorded the Cubs game with the Giants and watched them drop another one.  Tomorrow we will go white water rafting at 0900 hrs from Gardiner.