Grinder and Coola enter their upper pond habitat
Posted by Devin Manky May 17, 2018
Grinder and Coola, our two resident Grizzly Bears, entered their large summer Upper Pond habitat today for the first time in 2018. This habitat is an increase from their hibernation area where they spent the winter this past year and when combined with the Lower Pond habitat in a couple weeks will represent the Grizzly Bears 5.5 acre summer habitat. The newly opened area is still full of snow but also has emerging grasses, which the bears fed on, and a couple of deep ponds, which the bears swam in!
Both bears enjoyed a good swim a thorough washing of their coats. During the winter months the bears do not bath and the dust can build up in their fur. In their hibernation habitat they have some snow to roll in but once they got into their Upper Pond Habitat today they quickly had a good dunk in the ponds! It looked cold but they seemed to *bear* it ok!
We hope you come up and see them exploring their expanded surroundings! They love digging snow caves, sliding down snow slopes and also lounging in their ponds. They will also build day beds on the slopes and have some lazy afternoon naps each day.
Of course no fun day would be complete without a good bear wrestle! We can tell Grinder and Coola are happy by watching their behaviors and play wrestling is a sign of contentment. You would have to be in their weight category to compete though!
