Visiting the AZA Accredited Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana

 Previously in the Grand Tetons/Yellowstone series:

Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons Day 1, Jenny Lake Campground, Elk Herd

Beautiful Jenny Lake, Foxes and Bears

Lovely Vistas full of Bison and Horses

Mormon Row, Pronghorn Antelope, and Ravens

Wildlife Art, Yellow-bellied Marmot, Colter Bay, and Ground Squirrels

Colter Bay to South Yellowstone

Black Sand Basin and Bison

More Bison, Old Faithful, Biscuit Basin, and Beginning of Artemisia Trail Hike

Hike to Morning Glory Pool! Plus Bison with Red Dogs, Elk, and Coyotes

I'd like to start by saying that I know zoos and wild animal parks are polarizing and for very good reason.  I honestly have a lot of reservations around keeping wild animals in captivity.  I think a lot of zoos and parks are heinous and should not be allowed to operate.  

On the rare occasion that I visit a facility, I prefer that they are AZA accredited, but I also know that some facilities - such as the Folsom City Zoo and Sanctuary - are not accredited because they rescue animals and don't follow all of the conditions for accreditation such as breeding, trading, and/or selling animals (which I think is actually a very good thing). 

The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center (GWDC) is accredited, but I think it's a bit of a hybrid in that a lot of the animals (all of the grizzlies and raptors) were removed from the wild and deemed unable to be reintroduced for various reasons some of which include injuries to the animal, habitation to humans, etc.  So it's more of a sanctuary. 

I decided to go there for a couple reasons.  1) I really wanted to see bears.  I was blessed to see a sow and her two cubs in Grand Teton but this was the best picture I got.

and 2) after seeing this beauty and her babies, I really wanted to see MORE bears and have a chance to really observe them.  And I was afraid that wasn't going to happen in Yellowstone.

So, since I had to go to West Yellowstone for supplies and cell phone signal, I decided to go ahead and go. I'm glad I did!

I pulled into the parking lot at the center and was intrigued to see a  statue of a painted bison which reminded me of the Hearts in San Francisco sculptures that I love to find when I'm in the City.  I later found out that this bison was part of a West Yellowstone art installation titled Where the Painted Buffalo Roam. 

I saw a few more of the bison statues around town but this was the only picture I got.  After admiring the lovely painted buffalo, I headed into the Discovery Center.

They had eight bears in residence at the time and there was a whiteboard that showed their names and current weight (as of about 10 days prior).

  They also had signs with the bear's name and story.  I had taken a few photos of the bears I saw but didn't keep them which I now regret. The stories were mostly similar: bears (often as cubs) who become habituated to getting food from humans and must be removed from the wild.  Either by euthanasia or by placing them in a facility such as this.  I'm grateful that these innocent bears were not killed. 

The grizzlies are rotated in and out of the main area in pairs throughout the day.  Between each pair, the staff place food and other enrichment for the bears to find. 

I had to make a closeup too. :)

In keeping with its continuing effort to educate the public on living and traveling safely in bear country, the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center cooperates with state and federal agencies in the testing of bear-resistant food and garbage storage containers.

This bear won this one. 

I mostly videotaped the first two bears that I was watching.  One of them was swimming in the trout-stocked pond and having a blast!  I was having a blast watching them.  I must say my whole experience was very peaceful and positive.

Here's a video that I made of my approximately 3 hours spent at the facility.  :)

Back to the bears.  The next photos are of the second pair of grizzlies that I saw.  So beautiful and impressive!  Massive too!

I'm posting two of the same photo again. :)  This time for those who are curious about AI edited photos.  Topaz Photo AI Superfocus to be exact. 

This first one is edited in Topaz Photo AI basic which sharpens and denoises the photo.  I did crop this one in a little closer than the second.  

This one is with Superfocus which is true AI and just a little bit unreal looking to me. 

Anyhoo, mostly I don't use Superfocus. 

It was so fun to watch this guy turning over rocks like a piece of paper to get to the tasty treats underneath. 

While this lovely grizzly foraged, his buddy was having a swim!  Oh, he had so much fun swimming back and forth playing with his big ball.

The swimming bear came halfway out of the water and his wet fur highlighted his muscles!  Impressive!

Next I walked over to the Wolf area.  They were all asleep since it was afternoon (I'm assuming) But they were oh, so beautiful!  Especially this guy who was the easiest to photograph and quite a stunning specimen.

I don't know if that is a real rack of ribs or put there for "decorative" purposes.  

Wolves are also much bigger than I realized.  I can recognize coyotes pretty easy and have seen quite a few in the wild.  But even so I found myself wondering if it was a wolf or coyote when I came across the canines in Yellowstone.

This helpful sign showed the difference in size between the two as well as other differences for identification. 

They also had a sign that documented all the wolf and grizzly sightings in Yellowstone for the past couple weeks. 

Are these crows?  Or ravens?  I thought they were ravens but now I'm not so sure.  lol They're gorgeous no matter which they are.  There were sooooo many of them all over the place.  I love them.

Back to my photogenic, lovely wolf friend.  Those eyes!  That fur!  That cute face!

If not friend then why friend shaped?  Such an apt question.

A couple closeups for you.  I took these from inside the observation building through a window just so ya know.  His paws were massive!

These two were laying much further away against a back fence.  I was outside this time and using a 300mm zoom lens.

This is also through the inside window but he was laying much further out in the field.  There's a little distortion and/or chromatic aberration in the hindquarters I think. 

They're all so tired and sleepy.  Don't blame them!  Me too a lot of the time.

After spending quite a bit of time watching the bears and wolves, I also walked around to see the rescue raptors (turkey vulture, hawk, falcon, bald eagles) which you can see a little bit of in my video above. 

And of course the adorable little Uinta Ground Squirrels in their colony!  I interacted with a couple of these guys in Grand Tetons where one "lived" in my camp site and liked to pop up to see what I was doing.  Totally adorbs.  Here's a few pictures of the GWDC's resident enchanting fellows.

A little drinky and then a cooling sploot! Cute Sploot!

And finally, a closeup of the sweetie. 

And with that, it was time to gather my provisions and get some dinner.  

But first, I had to make a long phone call to my daughter after our vet left me a message regarding my cat that I "had brought in"!  Ummm, what?  THAT was a shock to me 844 miles away and now worried that something terrible had happened at home. 

Luckily the cat was fine and daughter was fine.  She had taken him in as a precaution because he was acting a bit weird.  Little did we know that was our first symptom of hypothyroidism that would be his last illness.  But he had a couple more years in him. (Love you Chavy!  Miss you!)

So went to the store and then to a restaurant to pick up my delicious food -- some of which I spilled in my car and then had a panic attack about because BEARS.  See my last post for the full story. 

I would like to say the night was uneventful, but of course it wasn't! The weather forecast said it might rain.  But that was a little understated.

It poured!  And the thunder and lightning were the worst I've ever experienced!

I was kind of loving it, although a bit nervous.  I definitely wasn't prepared and my tent was not the foul-weather type.  I did sleep, but woke up at about 3:00 a.m. feeling like I was swimming.  The entire floor of my tent had about an inch of water on it and the walls and ceiling were dripping.  lol!

Most of my stuff was in the car so I jumped up quick and grabbed my sleeping bag and pillow (which thankfully were pretty dry).  I ran to the car and hopped into the driver seat!  Oh. My. Goodness!  I was right across from the bathroom so I ran over there to dry off and get warm (lovely heated bathrooms!).

Then I got back into the driver's seat, wrapped my sleeping bag around me and went right back to sleep in my huckleberry-scented car.  It was magical. 

See you next post when we visit Fountain Paint Pots and Grand Prismatic!

xoxo

Nikon D600 28-300mm lens

Google Pixel 4 for Video