Things have gone pretty well with Yona meeting the other bears. (Remember, black bears are solitary by nature). Here’s the quick version, but come to any 2:00 Meet The Keeper program and you can talk to the Keepers first hand about what happened. Sunday late afternoon we let Yona and Gus together in the house. It was fairly uneventful so we let Virginia and Mimi in too. Gus and Yona did some gentle play wrestling. After about an hour, weRead more
Posts tagged: #Virginia bear
Why The Difficulties for Yona (and the others)
Yes, it’s true, no photos yet. I’m still in bed, but wanted to follow-up to my last post. I hope that people “get” what’s going on for Yona and the other bears. I assume some people would think Yona would be thrilled and the other bears would welcome her with open arms. Some elaboration to explain what’s going on. Yona grew up being bottle fed by the same person and then living in the same exhibit at ABR with otherRead more
Bears & Watermelon
Some photos of our bears when we toss watermelons in the pool. It happens like this: Bear comes over to pool and tries to get watermelon without getting in the water. Many attempts made to reach watermelon with paws. Gus in particular seems to not want to go in the water too much. Give up and head into water. Use paws to stabilize watermelon enough to get a good bite. Once watermelon is secure in teeth, paddle to shore. ArriveRead more
Virginia comes in for dinner
If you’ve ever been to one of our Meet the Keeper programs at Bear Overlook, a keeper has probably described to you how Virginia and Gus, two of our younger black bears, can climb up to the top ledge of the rock quarry that is their exhibit. They get up there by climbing up this natural ramp on the back wall of the exhibit. It’s pretty steep; I sure wouldn’t want to attempt it, but bears are great climbers andRead more
EnrichBits: A new toy
EnrichBits: A monthly look at Animal Enrichment Our newest bear enrichment toy comes from the people at Boomer Ball. It’s made for polar bears, I think, but we thought we’d see how our Black Bears took to it. Remember as you watch this terribly suspenseful video, that it’s really enriching for the animal when they have to think about things and make choices! And the longer they stay interested, the better the enrichment!Read more